Broken Halo
by LynnAgate
Summary: Alec asks Max to help him with a mission to rescue a member of his Manticore unit. Disclaimer: Dark Angel is owned by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee. For entertainment purposes only.
1. Getting Max

Crash, 9:30 p.m.

Max and Original Cindy sat at the bar, waiting for the bartender to fill the pitcher. OC was mid-story about a time when her old roommate walked in on her and her girlfriend getting busy. Max was nearly doubled over with laughter.

"I told him, 'honey, we don't have room in here for you, so just take your sausage and leave.' He was so embarrassed he almost dropped his sausage!"

"And who was this?" Max asked.

"He was Glen, the last male roommate Original Cindy ever had."

The bartender returned with the pitcher and a couple glasses for the two girls and Sketchy, who was currently trying and failing to get a girl's number over by the jukebox. Max and Original Cindy returned to the table and poured the ale.

"Whatcha got planned for the weekend?" Max asked.

"Why? You need some alone time in the apartment witcha boy?" she asked, looking past Max as Alec came down the stairs.

Max didn't see him. "Alec is not my boy," she said.

"I never said 'Alec,'" OC pointed out. Max's face reddened slightly. Before she could say anything, Alec was already joining their table.

"Hey Max, OC," he greeted. He turned to Max. Something shifted in his eyes. "You know, Max, you're lookin' really good tonight," he said, very obviously checking Max out. He shot a sideways glance to Original Cindy, who didn't notice it.

Max looked at him as if he were on some strong drugs. "Alright, Alec, what do you want?"

"What do you mean? I'm just giving a very overdue compliment to my hot transgenic counterpart," he offered, smiling suggestively and raising his brows playfully.

"I'm not buyin' it, Alec," Max said. "What do you want?"

Alec wasn't ready to divulge that information. He needed to talk to Max alone. He raised an eyebrow and gave her the unique-creature-unlike-any-other stare, which Max would see right through but OC would not. "What do I want?"

_Time to think fast_, he thought. "What I'd really like is to take you by to my place and-"

Although Original Cindy had abruptly stared at Alec as if he was clearly crazy for uttering such words to her girl, whom she knew would bust his head for first stating and then continuing such a conversation, Alec continued. "-and smooth you open against the wall, smearing kisses over every inch of your body-"

Max had blushed. She'd been a fleeting object of his flirtation once or twice, but he never got specific and he'd never sent her to fantasize from his imagery. He continued, Max dumbstruck. "-then taste every curve of your skin before slowly and agonizingly undressing you, letting my fingertips caress your creamy-"

Original Cindy stood up with her beer and began walking away, muttering something about getting sick.

"-skin as you creep your hands up my-" Alec stopped, noticing OC had stepped away and Max's eyes seemed to be stuck in an Alec-facing trance, looking into his eyes; her stare was vacant – she was somewhere else. "-chest," he finished, enjoying the flushed skin at her face. He watched her for half a minute before she broke out of it. He was surprised she hadn't slapped him already.

"What?" she asked.

"Where were you just now?" he asked, wondering if she was imagining a couple of transgenics they both knew using what some geneticist gave them to _every_ advantage.

_Up against a wall, getting undressed by,_ Max thought, interrupting her thought process. "Um, nowhere. What's up?"

Alec didn't believe her – but he needed to get Max alone so they could talk, and he knew OC wouldn't leave unless she was distracted by a potential love interest or disgusted by how he pleasured women.

"I need your help," he said.

Mac couldn't help herself. She immediately flashed back to his little scenario and thought, '_With your pants or mine?'_

"I got word from my old SIC that one of my unit is in danger outside town a couple hours."

Max barely understood what he had just said. His _old SIC? Alec had been a CO?_

She thought back to what she knew about him. It made sense that Manticore's finest would lead a unit. _Okay, I can see that,_ she thought. _But there's also someone in trouble from his unit, and he's asking me for help. I didn't even know he kept in touch with his unit. I didn't even know he knew how to ask for help._

Then it clicked. _Must be an old 'friend._' She thought about it again. He'd never asked for her help before – except for the bomb-in-the-head thing she spent all of her virus money on.

"How can I help?" she asked decidedly. And disappointedly. After all, he was about to save a damsel in distress, and she doubted the X5 would repay his kindness with money.

"Well, it kinda requires," Alec began, leaning in toward her ear, then whispered, "the help of a certain cyber-journalist-'not like that'-guy you know."

Max smiled, closing her eyes momentarily at smelling Alec from so close a distance.

_What the hell am I doing? _she thought. _Smelling him? God, he smells good. _

Max opened her eyes and felt a small pang of jealousy that she was about to send him right into the arms of the woman from his unit.

_Am I going into heat? _she questioned herself not two seconds later. _I hope not. Might have to have Original Cindy clock me again._

Across the bar at the pool table, Sketchy couldn't believe his ears. OC had just dropped some knowledge onto him and he had watched Max and Alec's conversation from afar. They were huddled at the table and whatever he had said, she was blushing and leaning into him. When Max suddenly stood and slipped into her jacket, he couldn't believe his eyes.

"They're going home together!" he asked, astonished, and proud.

Max waved to OC and Sketchy with a slight smile, and left.

Sketchy turned to OC and said, "What did he just say to her? I gotta find out, 'cause I keep strikin' with the ladies."


	2. Getting A Cover

Outside Logan's, Max prepped Alec. "Just let me do the talking," she said. Alec rang the bell, and a moment later, Logan swung the door open.

"Hey Max," Logan began. "Alec."

Alec nodded and mentally refrained from insulting Logan with some Transformers-type insult. It would have been something along the lines of "Binocutron," but he did what Max had asked.

"Logan, we need your help."

Logan gestured them in and led the way to his office. "What can I help with?"

"We need some fake IDs," Max said, leaning against his desk. Alec stayed at the door jamb.

"For?" Logan prodded. He folded his hands in his lap as if he was being pitched a movie he knew he wasn't going to fund. He didn't like the way that Alec looked at Max when she wasn't paying attention.

"Found a transgenic in need. It's a two-man job – Alec and I need some fake IDs so we can get in there and rescue her."

Alec didn't bother correcting Max. At this point it was neither here nor there.

"What kind of IDs do you need?" Logan asked, looking only to Max.

Max shot a glance to Alec.

"We have to infiltrate a business. A hotel in Denver. Used to be called the Oxford Hotel, but I think it's got a new name."

Max's eyes widened. "Colorado?" _Must be some girl – someone really close to him. Or someone he's really close to. _

"Okay, I can set you up with some IDs and a reservation. How long do you think you'll need?"

"Couple of days," Alec said.

Logan turned to his computer and began typing. "I'll get you a week."

As Logan focused on the computer, Max dragged Alec into the living room by his arm. "A week, Alec?" she asked in a harsh whisper.

"Yeah, you know, you and me, a little one-on-one action over at the Oxford Hotel. A week's stay on Logan under the pretense that we're saving a Manticore alumnus from a little genetic discrimination," he toyed playfully. "Come on, it'll be fun. They have bath tubs the size of Logan's office! We could start a bubble bath together and see what happens."

Max, somehow, had envisioned this gigantic bubble bath, and had mentally put herself and Alec – both stark naked – in it, covered up to their necks in glorious bubbles of soap, relaxing.

"A little 'you-wash-my-spot-and-I'll-scrub-yours', maybe some vanilla candles," he added, Max getting that far-off look in her eyes again. "You know, like the scent you use in your hair."

_Woops_, he thought. _Too much._

The vanilla detail he inadvertently slipped in broke her right out of that gorgeously intimate trance. She slapped him on the arm, harder than he expected.

"Ow, Max, I was just trying to show you what you're missing!" he said, covering his vanilla-mistake with a jesting truth.

She made a fist and bumped him lighter at the same spot she had just slapped him.

"Ow, Maxie, you really know how to get a guy hot," he continued, watching the flare in her eyes grow into a brown, peppery fire.

Before he could continue, she did something he never thought he'd see. She smiled. Then laughed. Loudly.

Alec felt a smile draw on his face.

Alec folded his arms across his chest and decided to cut to the chase. "I asked for your help, Max, I didn't think it would be conditional."

Max pouted. _Why did he have to be all noble and helpful and honest right now? _

"How are we going to get time off work for this?" she asked.

Alec smiled. "I already asked Normal. He thinks we're visiting my sick Aunt Patty in St. Paul, Nebraska." Alec looked rather pleased with himself at the feat of getting time off for them both, totally ignoring the possibility that she would know he requested it in advance of his asking her for help.

"We?" she asked, returning to the semi-angry scowl. _The nerve!_

"Oh, yeah, and Normal thinks we're dating," he added, giggling boyishly. "So maybe want to revisit some of that bathtub imagery when we get back."

Max scoffed.

"Or not."

"How did you know I would help you?" she asked, mirroring his image and folding her arms.

"Because, Maxie," he said, "that's what you do." Before she had a chance to argue, he threw his arm around her and led her back toward Logan's office. "Come on, honey," he said jokingly. "If you get too tense, I'll have to rub some lotion all over your taut muscles – ow!"

She punched him in the side, gentler than a transgenic could take but harder than a human could, then shrugged off his arm as they passed the jamb of Logan's office.

Logan swiveled in his chair, catching the tail-end of the maneuver. To him, it appeared as though maybe Max was trying to spare Logan's feelings and didn't want to 'show-off' in front of him that Alec had won the girl.

"Okay, so I've got you lined up for a week's stay at the Oxford Hotel, which you were right," he said to Alec before continuing, "has been renamed. It is now referred to as The Lux."

Max interjected. "The Lux?" _Some hoity-toity gig out in Denver that's a bit too pompous for its own good._

"It's a high-end hotel now. I guess it used to be high-end in the early 90s." Logan looked over to Alec.

"And now it's higher-end," Alec finished. "They have some corrupt and unsavory clientele there."

"Let me guess," Max started sarcastically. "That's how your friend got in trouble."

Alec nodded.

Logan sat back in his chair. "According to my source, they employ a lot of underage orphans in many despicable ways – the young girls are used for prostitution," he said, as if there was an awful taste in his mouth he couldn't get rid of, "and the boys are used as petty burglars, to steal from their patrons."

"The big pot for them is when they 'invite' the folks who owe them money," Alec said.

"Mafia-owned?" asked Logan, an eyebrow up at this tidbit of which he wasn't aware.

Again, Alec nodded. "Yep, and sometimes, these orphans-" he looked to Max, "or as you and I might call them, transgenics – have to clean up the mess, or find themselves out of a life."

Max's eyes widened. "The girls get indentured prostitution and the boys have to do shit-work for the mob. That's just perfect. How did so many of our kind get involved in that?"

Alec shrugged. "They don't all have a conscience, Max," he said. "And some are desperate."

"How many of them have died?"

"I don't know. Probably not many, though. You know our Manticore comrades are smart and they can find a way out of almost anything. Plus, my SIC has been watching over our unit. This is one he needs help with." Alec leaned against the wall.

"When are you leaving?" Logan asked.

Max glanced at Alec again. He answered, "as soon as those IDs are ready."

"I'll have them for you by tomorrow morning."

"Thanks," Max said.

The two transgenics turned to leave, but Max stopped and faced Logan again. "One more thing."

"What's that?"

"Nah, never mind, we can pick one up on the way," she finished.


	3. Getting Packed

Max woke up at 4 AM, unable to go back to sleep and filled with excitement for the upcoming mission. She showered while Original Cindy slept, and padded around their apartment, pacing and getting ready.

She hadn't had time yet to talk to OC about what was going on, and sitting around waiting for her to wake up wasn't her style. So she woke her up.

"Boo, is the building on fire?" OC asked, eyes closed.

"No, I just need to talk to you a second," Max said.

"Can it wait until both my eyes are open?" OC pleaded, "You know in, like, three hours?"

"I'm going on a trip with Alec," Max said.

Original Cindy opened her eyes. "You what?"

Max smiled. She knew that would get her friend's attention. "Apparently, we're going to visit his sick Aunt Patty in Nebraska."

Original Cindy sat up. "Are you getting' married?"

"What? No!" Max laughed. "Why would you think that?"

"It's not exactly a stretch to ask, considering how close you two were huddled yesterday. Sketchy 'bout lost his damn mind when you two split. Together."

"No, we're going to Colorado to help a member of his Manticore unit."

Original Cindy chuckled to herself. "You're gonna go save his unit?" she asked, laughing.

Max slapped OC playfully on the arm.

"Okay, I'm sorry, but I couldn't help it."

Max smiled and settled herself across from her friend. "So we'll be gone for a week or so."

"Need me to do some damage control with Normal?" OC asked.

Max pressed her lips together. "Um, actually, no. Alec already took care of that."

"And how did he do that?"

"Well, I guess it's about time I let you know," Max started, keeping a straight face. "Alec and I are dating." Max watched OC's face for her reaction. Her face was surprisingly cool and collected.

"Can't fool me, boo," OC responded. "You already spilled why you two are going to Colorado."

Max felt slightly relieved. "Well, if Normal asks, we're dating."

"So when you two leavin'?"

"In about an hour. We'll be undercover at this swanky hotel, and I won't be able to call you until we're safely out of there."

Max folded her hands in her lap.

"So what are you gonna do when this transgenic is free?"

"Probably get her some papers," she said with too-little emphasis on 'her.'

Original Cindy did not miss it. "You're going to rescue a female member of his unit?"

Max felt her face heat up a little. She hoped it didn't show.

"You sure that's such a good idea?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Max asked. "That's what I do, right?"

Silence fell between them for a minute.

"Well, I better get going," Max said. "One loose end to tie up before I go."

"Alright, girl, be safe."

Original Cindy and Max hugged and Max headed to the living room to grab her suitcase.

Outside Alec's, Max waited at the door with her suitcase at her feet. She'd been pounding on the door for five minutes without answer.

Max sat down on her suitcase and leaned her head against the wall, hoping he hadn't already left. He had asked her to meet him here, right?

After a few minutes, Max heard a couple of shuffled noises inside, and then a thud.

"Son of a bitch!" she heard Alec through the door.

Max leapt to her feet and pounded on the door. She took a couple steps back and raised her foot, ready to kick the door open.

Suddenly it swung open and Alec flinched behind it. "Whoa! Max!"

Max relaxed and brought her foot back down, noticing Alec appeared to be fresh out of the shower.

"I've been waiting out here for five minutes!" she said. "And what's going on in here?"

"Nothing, just got out of the shower," he said.

Max grabbed her suitcase and entered his apartment. "What was all that banging around?" She looked around, half expecting to find a girl come out of his room.

"Stubbed my toe on the couch," Alec said, pointing to his swollen pinky toe.

Max followed the line of his chest down, over the towel around his waist and to the smallest toe on his left foot.

"You're early," Alec said, walking toward his room.

"Couldn't sleep," Max offered. "Shark DNA." She looked around his apartment. For the most part, it still looked like Brain's decorating style; Alec hadn't added much beyond a few items here and there: bottles of Scotch, surround sound stereo. It was Spartan. "Ready to go?"

"Does it look like I'm ready to go?" he asked, looking down at his own towel, sarcastically suggesting that of course he was ready. He disappeared into his room and swung the door lightly. It didn't close as he kept talking. "I don't have shark DNA, Max. "

Through the small sliver of open door, Max caught a bit of his skin and quickly turned to walk toward his kitchen. "Do you have any coffee?" she asked, opening a couple of cupboards. All she found was Scotch, Rum and Vodka. She opened the fridge and discovered mustard, leftover Chinese takeout and a half-eaten block of cheese. "Or anything, for that matter?"

She could hear Alec rustling about in his room, undoubtedly putting his clothes on. "Check the dishwasher," he said.

Max opened the dishwasher and saw a stash of foods: multi-grain bread, a few cans of soups and chili, and a few packages of flavorful crackers. She caught sight of something yellow at the back and pulled the top drawer of the dishwasher out. Max's eyes lit up as she reached for it. Banana.

"Why do you keep your food in the dishwasher?" she asked, peeling back the stem of the banana and listening to the sweet split noise it made.

"I've been told the building gets rats in the winter," he said loudly from behind his door. "Figured it wouldn't do any harm to store it in a place they probably couldn't get to."

"Makes sense," Max said barely above a whisper, pulling apart the sides of the banana so it had only one split in the skin. She eyed the sweet, white fruit within and broke off a small piece between her thumb and forefinger.

Alec pulled open his bedroom door and carried his duffel bag out with him, closing the door behind him. He watched as Max placed the soft piece in her mouth. Something about her just enjoying the banana made him smile. Maybe it was the way her lips shined or the way her eyes closed.

Alec threw his duffel at the foot of the couch. "You gotta try this," he said, walking toward her. He passed her and opened the freezer, blocking what was inside with his back. "Close your eyes," he ordered, peeking over his shoulder to make sure her eyes were closed before he turned around.

As if by some sort of miracle, her eyes were, in fact, closed. She had a smile on her face. "What is it?"

Alec broke off a piece of the banana and shoved something into the center. "Open your mouth," he said with a slight smile crossing his lips.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Max said, smiling.

"Seriously, you'll thank me."

Max was quiet for a moment, then opened her mouth. Alec stepped toward her. Immediately, she could smell his clean skin wafting into her personal space.

Alec thanked his luck that her eyes were closed, because she couldn't see how caught up he was in her beauty. And it was weird, too, the things he suddenly found beautiful about her. Her lips shined when she smiled. Her relaxed expression forged a testament to the trust they'd built up over the past year. The way her pink tongue glistened and waited for this extravagant new taste made him swallow hard.

He gingerly placed the fruit into her mouth and waited for her to eat. Her lips closed, concealing the fruit, and she chewed slowly, as if waiting to discover the magic he'd just promised. Then it hit her.

"Mmmm, chocolate," she hummed. "And banana." Max opened her eyes to a still-near Alec, who was busied by her expressions.

"Together at last," he said. "Good, right?"

Max nodded. She turned to face the living room and missed Alec licking the chocolate and banana residue from his fingers.

"So you ready to get the hell out of Dodge?" he asked.

"Sure, just got to make one stop."


	4. Getting In Gear

Alec found himself and Max in a parking lot within walking distance of his apartment. He knew once he saw her suitcase why she wanted to stop here. They needed wheels.

"What kind of vehicle you looking for?" he asked, leaning against a Chevy Impala while she scanned the lot. "Something with good gas mileage? You know it's almost 1400 miles to Denver."

"Something that says 'I can afford it.' And something black." Max stopped at an Audi. "Too expensive."

"How about this one?" he asked of the Impala. It was shiny, new-ish, and black. Looked expensive. It fit her criteria.

Max looked over to him. Something about how Alec leaned nonchalantly against that car made her look away before he could see her blushing. _I must be crazy to be imagining being in that car with him on some deserted highway in the middle of the night._ "Why? Are we picking up chicks?" she joked, coming to a stop in front of a black Mercedes SUV.

Alec smirked. "What!" he asked not-so-innocently. He looked to the car as if to say 'sorry, I guess not this time.'

"Found it!" Max called.

Alec brought their baggage over and set them at the rear of the car, then jimmied the driver's side door open with a slim-jim. An alarm sounded loudly.

Max jumped between the seat and the door and bent over into the driver's side to pull the car's wires.

Alec was looking out for anyone who might wonder what they were doing and why a loud alarm was going off, but when he looked over to Max, he became entranced by her backside.

"Alec!" she called, messing around in the wires.

"Hm?" he asked in mumbled response.

"Better not be lookin' at my ass!"

Alec laughed nervously. "Is there a law against appreciating what Manticore gave you?"

The alarm stopped. Max stood up and pulled the visor down. A set of keys dropped out. She turned to see Alec's surprised face. "What?" she asked, smiling.

"Nothing."

"Did they not have a class for this at Manticore?"

Alec grabbed the keys. "No, they did. But you were already out here that semester."

Max walked to the back of the vehicle. "Pop the trunk," she said. Alec released the lock on the back and Max loaded their luggage. "Let's get to Logan's and grab those IDs."

Alec knocked on the door for ten minutes before the door swung open to reveal Asha. He smiled. "Asha!"

"Hey guys," she said. "Logan had to step out for a few. He asked me to give you this if you stopped by while he was gone." Asha handed Max an envelope.

"Thanks," Max said, eyeing Asha suspiciously.

"He said to call him when you get there, and of course-"

"Be careful?" Alec chimed in.

Asha nodded with a smile. "Have a safe trip."

In the elevator on the way back down, Alec studied Max's face and body language for confirmation that she was, in fact, jealous.

"What? Why are you staring at me like that?"

"You're jealous," he blurted out.

"No I'm not!" she said. Of course she was, but was not about to admit it.

"Oh, so you're telling me the fact that Asha's traipsing around barefoot at Logan's doesn't raise the green flag for you?"

"Nope."

"It doesn't bother you one bit that she's allowed free reign in his absence?" Alec smirked.

_Especially that, _she thought. "Nope. We're not –"

"Not like that. Yeah, so I've heard." Alec paused a moment. "Who are you 'like that' with? Or have you ever been?"

Max scoffed. "None of your business!"

He smirked. Again. The 'I'm-right-and-I-know-it' smirk that drove her crazy.

The elevator doors opened and Max led the way out and back to the car.

"So you've never been – 'like that' – with anyone?"

Max stopped short. "No, okay? I've been on the run and kind of had to watch my own back for so long that I –"

"You've been 'like that' with yourself?" he joked.

Max huffed. "No, I-" she paused, weighing the pros and cons of telling him the truth. "Nevermind." She continued walking and climbed into the SUV.

_Why does he always have to push my buttons?_ _No one else in the history of my life pushes my buttons quite as effortlessly as he does._

Alec started the car, but sat silently, not even shifting the car out of park. "Max, I'm sorry," he started. "I just don't understand why you would deny yourself the opportunity to be happy." He stared at her but she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes.

With that said, he pulled out into the street and headed toward the sector checkpoint on the way out of town.

He'd been driving for over three hours when they reached Ritzville. They stopped at a gas station for a fill-up and some snacks.

"Kind of weird how gas is a little easier to come by out here," Alec said as Max offered him some bottled water.

"Yeah," Max responded. "Hey, sorry about earlier."

The truth is he was right. She had thought about what he said since they'd left Seattle. She even feigned sleep just so she wouldn't have to tell him that. But if she was honest with herself, the reason she and Logan weren't 'like that' was because she knew she wouldn't be happy with him, and consequently wouldn't allow herself to acknowledge that fact.

_Maybe I have daddy issues_, she thought, laughing to herself. _There's just something in the way he looks at me that makes me feel special. Like I'm worth more to him as a person than a soldier; and I'm more to him than a genetically engineered, bar-coded assassin._

"Max," Alec jolted her out of her thoughts. "Earth to Max."

"Yeah?"

"I was saying no problem, and I'm sorry I pushed it."

"I'll take a turn at the wheel," Max offered. "You can catch some Z's."

"I'm not tired, but if you want to drive, no problem." He tossed the keys to her.

For the next six hours, Max and Alec talked about their best Manticore memories, which she was surprised so many of his involved his unit mates. He regaled her with stories of his missions with his SIC, Biggs. This Biggs character sounded like a pretty good guy, and their missions together were more reconnaissance and less assassination.

"One time, we went to spy on this congressman who was one of the deciding votes for genetic-manipulation-related scientific advances. He basically was the say-so on whether or not the government would support research on the idea. Biggsy and I infiltrated this guy's house. You shoulda seen it, Max, it was like a palace." Alec looked over to her, an excited smile plastering itself to his face.

Max smiled. It was as if Biggs was his best friend he hadn't seen in years. Which, she thought, had to be true.

Alec continued. "So we tranq the one police officer on this guy's estate and we sneak through his house, following the sounds coming from what we think is this weird pre-pulse movie, and we bust in on this guy getting busy with a robot, which wouldn't have been as weird if the guy wasn't taping it."

Max laughed. "Why is it always the weirdos that use science for pleasure?"

Alec laughed, remembering. "And the guy had the sex-bot programmed to respond to him with phrases like 'harder,' 'faster,' and 'oh, yeah.' Well this huge smile spreads on Biggs' face as he takes out the tape from the camera and says, 'Excuse me, sir, but you're committing a crime.' The guy's already totally embarrassed to have gotten caught and he's looking around for – I don't know – the authorities to show up and parade him around some news cameras or something, all the while saying he didn't know it was illegal to be doing what he was doing, and all Biggs can say is how this guy could go to jail because the robot was underage."

Max smiled and chuckled softly. "So what happened to this congressman?"

"We blackmailed him into changing his vote." Alec's face turned serious all the sudden. "Manticore didn't want the government to agree to the research, 'cause then they would have had competition."

He was silent for a moment. A soft smile reappeared on his face. "We've seen some weird shit."

Max pulled off the highway and toward a gas station. "So how long has it been since you've seen him?"

"The congressman? Well, since that day."

"No, Biggs."

Alec thought back. "Before you lit that bitch up, he was on a deep cover solo mission. So it's been almost 18 months."

"Should be quite the reunion, huh?"

Alec sat up a little straighter as they pulled into the gas station. His face changed slightly. "Yeah, just beware, Max."

"What do you mean?"

"He's kinda, um…"

Max bit her lip in anticipation. Alec was warning her about this guy? Maybe he wasn't as good a guy as she thought.

"Charming," Alec said, trying to figure out if he had just used the right word.

Max laughed. "Okay, I'll look out for this charming guy."

"I'm serious, the ladies used to go nuts when they were around the two of us. I don't know what he told them, but they believed it."

"Oh, and I'm sure you were so innocent," Max said, opening her door.

Alec met her on the driver's side of the vehicle to continue their conversation. "No, really. We were on mission in England when we were about sixteen, and we were going to this prep school. Had to wear these stupid little uniforms with shorts. Anyway, we befriended this politician's son. This kid was seriously involved in the extracurricular activities," Alec said, bringing a punched thumb and forefinger together toward his mouth and sucking in.

Max chuckled and placed the nozzle into the gas tank and started pumping.

"We were supposed to turn him straight, but Biggsy took a couple of hits too many and infiltrated the girls' school. He got it in his mind that twenty miles on a bicycle wasn't too far to go for a little lip action."

"You didn't go with him?" Max asked playfully.

"Of course I did," he admitted, smirking. "But I was a little more shy back then."

Max gasped in surprise. "You? Shy?"

Alec smiled. "After that night, we both got mono and the headmaster sent us both 'home.'"

Max frowned. "Where Manticore punished you for your misdeeds?"

"Bingo. But Biggsy had the phone numbers of probably fifteen girls in his pocket, and a silent promise he would go back eventually."

"So he's a regular Romeo. So what?" Max lifted the nozzle back into the gas pump. It really was easier to get gas outside of Seattle.

"Max, I'm saying just be careful. Even when we were at Manticore, he was kind of a heartbreaker. Ridiculously charming."

Max pulled some money from her pocket and approached Alec coyly. She stepped into his personal space, setting her body inches from his. "Seriously, Alec? You're ridiculously charming and I seem to be doing alright with you."

Alec took a step back, surprised. Did she accidentally let that slip out? Max smiled at him, having stunned him to silence. He felt his face redden a little.

"Need anything from the mart?" he asked, changing the subject and feeling like that sixteen year old boy again in a dorm full of young girls.

She smiled sweetly and handed him the cash. "Could you give this to the clerk?"

Alec swallowed hard and accepted the cash. "Sure." He slipped back into his older self's mind, and as she turned to twist the gas cap back on, he checked her out on his way around the vehicle, manifesting that sideways smile he always gave her when she wasn't looking.


	5. Getting Through Enemy Territory

"Ready to get out of Whitehall?" Alec asked, returning from the mart. Max was already seated in the driver's seat, so he hadn't bothered with requesting to drive.

"Absolutely," she said, starting the engine and heading back toward the highway.

"You know we're a few hours away from passing Manticore home-base, right?"

Max moistened her lips and stared ahead with determination. "Yeah, I know."

He knew it would be a challenge for her but it would be something she'd force herself to do. Facing her fears – something soldiers did without hesitation and without words; Alec thought it suited her well. Her silence when it came to her Manticore days was bravery.

"Hey Max," he started.

"Yeah."

"Tell me about after you escaped."

Max looked over to him.

"I mean, how did you know what to do and who to talk to and how to survive? Where did you go?"

Max took a deep breath. "Well, I guess I didn't, really. Know any of that stuff. When we hopped the fence, Zack told us all we'd have to separate, you know, in order to survive. And though I would never give up what time I did have with them, Zack was right, at least when we were that age."

Alec smiled. Max talked about her unit mates like they were family, like they belonged together. It was nice to see that. He admired that about her. It was one of the reasons he stayed – because he'd have the chance to maybe have her depend on him like she had depended on her siblings. And maybe vice versa.

"But now I see that we'd be stronger together," she said, glancing furtively at Alec.

Alec stared into space. He wondered if she meant him. Zack and Brin, Tinga and Ben, they hadn't been around as long as him; plus, he'd gone on missions with her on numerous occasions and even spent time with her socially. He had joined the group of friends – made it into the inner circle with Original Cindy and Sketchy.

"So when I first got out, there was this woman, Hannah, who sort of helped me get out of enemy territory. She was pretty nice. She took me to this little cabin and tried to get me set up with a friend who could take me in for a bit. But I was fresh out of Manticore and I did what any soldier would do in enemy territory."

"You kept moving." Alec shifted in his seat to face her.

Max nodded.

Alec furrowed his brow. "How did you get by? You were just a girl – with a shaved head, no less."

Max shrugged. "Sometimes people turn away from things they don't want to see. They must have thought I was an orphan or something. I slept in alleys until my hair grew out a little. I stole from street vendors, a couple of times from a farm or from a convenience store. I scavenged. I squatted. Whatever I had to do."

It occurred to Alec how tough it must have been – not knowing where the next meal or shelter would come from, not knowing like he had when he started his missions, that the security of Manticore was behind him.

"When I was about fourteen, I was staying at a children's shelter and was sort of sold to a family."

"What!" Alec exclaimed. "You what?"

"Well, people needed help. Like a barter system. If I stayed with them and did chores and stuff, I could have regular meals and shelter."

"Indentured servitude? Really?"

"Yeah, and most of the time it wasn't that bad."

Alec felt some unknown anger rising up through his blood. "But sometimes it was that bad?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle," she said, with an almost forlorn look in her eyes. "And besides, I didn't really have another choice, you know? My other choice was Manticore and I sure as hell wasn't going back there."

Alec looked uncomfortable. The thought of Max having to choose the lesser of two evils was unnerving. It sounded like she'd experienced some rough things out there, too.

"When did you get out on your own?" he asked. "I mean a job and apartment and stuff?"

"Really, I met Kendra searching for a place to squat and we became roommates. You would have liked her a lot." Max flashed him a semi-suggestive smile. "A busty blonde who knew how to have fun."

Alec smiled; Max's smile was contagious. He couldn't help it. "And what makes you think a busty blonde is my type?" he asked, giving her a sweet and suggestive grin.

Max didn't answer.

"What about OC? When did you start hanging with her?"

"I met Original Cindy my first day at Jam Pony. She was even more raw than she is now."

"Now you two live together, though," Alec prodded.

"Yeah, the roommate shuffle. Kendra moved on and OC needed a place to stay." Max looked at the road, but she was somewhere else mentally. "She's my best friend."

"And what about Logan, Mr. Eyes Only himself? When'd you meet him?"

"I was robbing his apartment 'bout two years ago," Max said. "He had this beautiful statue of Bast."

"Ah, figures. The cat thing." Alec joined in Max's laughter.

Her smile faded. "He figured out pretty quickly that I was Manticore. Weird."

"So you went to steal Bast but ended up stealing his heart?" Alec laughed. He thought he might die based solely on the cheese factor of what he just said.

Max bit the inside of her cheek. "Yeah, I guess. He had shown me a framed mirror, and while I appraised it, he outed me for having a barcode."

"How did he know about Manticore?"

"I don't know. He's a journalist, so probably did mountains of research. I mean, government conspiracy would be the story of a lifetime."

Alec's face seemed to harden with concern. "Maybe he had a source ready to expose it all, and then the source went missing or something. Why else wouldn't he have done his hack sooner? He had to wait for more proof because his source fell through."

Max considered the information. "You sound like you're a couple of cards short of a deck."

Alec almost jumped out of his seat as something else occurred to him. "Someone like Sandeman."

"Yeah, I don't think so. Sandeman's gone, missing, not because he's in witness protection. And if he was, Manticore would have already gone to public trial long ago." Max moistened her lips. _And besides, if Sandeman was Logan's informant, that means Logan's been lying to me for over two years. _

Max figured a change of topic was in order. "What about you? Did you have a lot of solo missions?"

Alec knew he had touched on something a little too sensitive, since she had gone through the trouble of changing the subject. He sat back in his seat and looked out the window.

"Not until I was a little older," he started. "I had a couple of group missions and a few partnered with Biggs." He smiled in remembrance of some of the good times.

"I'm kind of surprised," she said. "Your memories of Manticore make it sound like a boarding school where the headmasters don't really know what's going on right under their noses."

"Well, it's more like the better 'soldiers' we were at base, the more missions we were assigned to, the longer we spent away from the compound."

_We have something in common_, Max thought, again, surprised. _The taste of the outside world opened his eyes to the possibilities of life without Manticore._ "So you agreed to be something you weren't?"

"Sort of. More like I agreed to be something I was designed to be in order to survive." Alec closed his eyes at the few, more unpleasant memories of Manticore. "I'm not that different from you, Max. You had to face the evil to survive. I had to be it."

Max's wide eyes found the side of Alec's face to be stoic as the currently emotionless soldier could manage. She wondered what else had done – besides having almost blown up the one person he'd ever been close to (and her father). The way he squeezed his eyes shut worried her.

"Can't be that bad," she said in an attempt to allow him to drop the subject.

Alec's eyes snapped open and trained on her. "You don't want to know," he said, fiery hazel-green eyes burning into her. "And if you did, I still couldn't tell you."

He shifted away from her in his seat, as if her questioning presence mad his stomach sour and not seeing her would somehow make the sensation disappear.

_When you are your own worst critic, you never let yourself off the hook, _Max thought. _When you have a conscience, it's with you forever._

Max took a deep breath in preparation for the toughest question she thought she'd ever ask anyone. "Did you kill an innocent person?"

Alec tilted his head back and was instantly transported to that day – back under Colonel Parker's command, where as team leader, he had been asked to carry out an order.

Biggs had been interrogating the prisoner for over twenty-two hours with no results. Parker had ordered Biggs to eliminate the prisoner, but Biggs had reservations about taking his life; namely, he thought the guy was innocent.

Parker had shown Alec the evidence and documentation of the prisoner's deceit and criminal undertakings, and ordered the termination of the target. Alec knew that if Biggs didn't do it, he'd be sent to Psy-Ops, or worse, retired, so Alec made the executive decision when Biggs refused to make it himself.

After the task had been completed, Parker had commended him for his leadership and even promoted him within the ranks to Commanding Officer over a larger unit.

It wasn't until six months later during some routine file maintenance that he discovered the evidence he had been shown had been forged.

Alec shook himself out of the memory. He looked toward Max but couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes. "I had to," he finally answered, matter-of-factly. He stared straightforward. He didn't want to talk about it.

Max could sense there was something deeper going on, but his Manticore mask was up and she knew from personal experience it meant 'don't push'. She speculated on what could have made him take the life of an innocent person. Manticore? Maybe his own life was on the line?

They sat in silence for a while. Max felt displaced by the conversation. She realized he must be stronger than she thought if he had to choose to do the horrible things Manticore asked of him, because the alternative was worse.

"If I didn't, they would have put me out of commission. Retired me." The way he said it felt like the Scotch-riddled, sarcastically-clad, Manticore-masked Alec she was used to seeing and hearing when situations got a little too close for his comfort.

It was dark when they reached Buffalo. Alec had an idea they were getting close to Gillette when Max started fidgeting against the steering wheel with one hand. It seemed as if she wasn't sure where to put her other hand. She didn't want it on the wheel or the gearshift and ended up balling it into a fist at the center console. She was chewing her lips and staring straightforward, eager not to show how nervous she really was.

Even though he knew she'd decline, he asked anyway. "Want me to drive?"

"No, I'm fine." Again, she refused to look anywhere except at the road. He could see the whites of her eyes pointed forward, with the street lamps reflecting off of their glassy surface. She laid into the gas pedal more and sped up to 90 MPH.

With trees and other cars and buildings flying by him so quickly, Alec still felt some comfort with sitting right next to Max. But she clearly did not feel the same, as she began weaving around other cars on the road, presumably in an attempt to get as far away from Manticore's facility as quickly as possible.

It was dark in the vehicle with the exception of the driver's panel and its various informative lights. The stereo wasn't even on and neither of them had felt like listening to the radio. In his opinion, it wouldn't be as good as the TV anyway.

He thought he caught a glimpse of a tear in her eye, and she wouldn't turn to face him while she was in this state, so he chanced losing a limb of his body and reached his hand out to hers. His hand hovered, palm up, at her wrist with slight hesitation, then swept along the underside of hers. He curled his fingers around her fist and squeezed gently, keeping his eyes forward as they sped through the night.

Neither transgenic said a word as they merged onto US 87 South, moving away from danger. Max opened her hand but did not remove it from his.


	6. Getting Involved

After they reached Casper, Alec drove the last leg of the trip while Max slept. Must have been a trying feat – passing one's former prison – because she slept for three hours and he had to repeat they had arrived a second time for her eyes to drift open in awareness.

"We're in Denver already? I was only asleep for…" Max trailed, trying to do the math according to the clock in the car. "It's twelve AM."

"Yeah it is."

"I slept for three hours?"

Alec laughed. "Yep. You were all tuckered out. So cute in your little cat nap." Alec motioned to the outside world. "We're here. You got those IDs handy?"

Max found the envelope between the seat and the door and fished out their new identification.

"Thomas?" Alec asked, eyeing his ID. "Seriously? I sound like such a douche."

Max laughed and looked at her own ID. "Katarina Crawford." She looked to Alec with a smile. "Got a nice ring to it."

_Ring,_ Alec thought. "Wait, Crawford?" He showed her his ID.

"Oh, I'm gonna kill Logan."

Alec laughed.

"Oh, you think it's funny?"

He looked out the window and inhaled deeply. "Yeah. We're married and our names are Tom and Kat." He chuckled again.

"Why doesn't he just advertise our barcodes?" she said, obviously still pissed at the journalist.

"Come on, Mrs. Crawford," Alec said, getting out of the vehicle and leaving the door open for the valet. "Let's get checked in."

Max let herself out of the SUV and met Alec at the trunk, where the valet had just removed their baggage.

The place was beautiful inside. With well-kept plants and marbled flooring, the lobby emitted an attractive garden vibe, and when they saw the indoor waterfall, they looked to one another as if they had just hit the jackpot.

The two transgenics approached the concierge desk, behind which stood a short, dark-haired sniveling man who eyed them suspiciously.

"Be the part," Alec mumbled to Max.

Immediately, Max adopted a more rigid posture. They reached the desk.

"Checking in?" asked the sniveler. Alec scoped his nametag. 'Monte.' _Of course._

"Mr. and Mrs. Crawford," Alec said, nodding to Max.

Monte smiled. "Of course, sir," he said, typing their alleged name into his registry system. His face fell slightly.

"Is there a problem?" Max asked, looping her arm through Alec's and curling her fingers around his bicep.

Alec tried to hide his surprise.

"It appears as though our system made an error. Is it right – were you registered for two rooms?" Monte asked, puzzled by what he was reading. "Staying for one week?"

Alec looked over to Max.

_Oh, thank you Logan, _Max thought, giving a mental sigh of relief.

"Well, I'm sorry," Monte continued, "but the Lux is hosting the Houseman-Chase wedding and the hotel is booked. Your reservation was made so late and you hadn't checked in by four PM, so our system assumed you were a no-show, and per hotel policy, offered up one of your rooms to some folks in the bridal party."

"Uh, you what?" Alec asked.

Monte stiffened, expecting hesitation and anger. "We still have one of your two reservations available."

"Let me get this straight," Max began, letting her character take over. "You don't have the two rooms we paid for?"

Monte looked around nervously. "Well, your rooms were prepaid – one standard and one upgraded. The standard room was reassigned to the bride's family members, but the other room is still available – the upgraded one."

Alec smirked as his 'wife' readjusted her stance.

"Well, the upgraded room is our Garden View Suite, which is a single step down from the Presidential Suite. It sits on a corner with a big balcony overlooking the city. It has a living and dining area, king-size bed, two flat screen TVs," to which Alec smiled appreciatively, "It has a double in-ground Jacuzzi bath, a double shower, and desk."

Monte looked to Max. She folded her arms impatiently. "And we'd like to offer you free room service for our error and for the inconvenience," he managed to grunt out.

Max inhaled sharply. "I suppose that'll be fine."

Alec smiled, slipping his hand through her folded arms and cupping his hand around hers. "We could really use the alone time," Alec said to Monte, staring lovingly at Max. "You know, the bubble bath I promised you…"

"Shall I have the bubbles sent up to your room, sir?" Monte asked, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

"Yes," Alec said as Max simultaneously said 'no.'

Monte gave another bewildered look. When Max turned to collect her luggage, Alec nodded 'yes' to Monte.

"You'll be in room 816." Monte slid a couple of room keys to Alec.

"Thanks," Alec said.

"Of course, sir. Please let us know if you need anything. We're always available if you call down."

"Actually, Monte, do you know of any good restaurants around here? The Missus and I are starving."

"Of course, sir, there are a couple of great Italian places nearby, but I'm afraid they're all closed for the night. Shall I send up the room service menu?"

"That'd be great."

Max and Alec passed a young boy on the way to the elevators. Max eyed his neck for a barcode but he didn't have one.

"So, Kat," Alec began, entering the elevator. "Interested in that bath?"

"Since when have you known a cat to be interested in water?"

Alec pondered her question, taking the time to form his response. "I've known you for well over a year, and I know you don't go a week without boiling twenty pots of water for a hot soak."

Max tried not to let him win the argument, deciding that changing her reasoning should correct his line of thought. "How can you be so cavalier about luxurious bathing when you know there's illegal and immoral activity going on right under your nose?"

But she did want the luxurious bubble bath.

The elevator chimed as they reached their floor and they exited the cab to head down the hall.

"We're supposed to meet Biggs tomorrow afternoon at one of these local Italian eateries," Alec said. "No harm in having an exciting double bubble bath."

Was he not going to let this go?

"Or a calming one," he added nonchalantly.

They reached the door to room 816 and Alec leaned against it on one shoulder, raising the two room keys between them. "What do you think? Me, you, candles and bubbles?"

Something about the way his eyes shined in the dimly-lit hallway excited Max's blood. He was almost unnaturally quiet. It seemed as if they could get away with anything while they were here – and for a moment, she entertained the idea.

Max stepped toward him, placing a hand on his forearm and dragging her fingers down toward his hand. She slipped one of the keys out of his hand and slid the key into the card reader, all without looking away from him. The card reader flashed green and unlocked the door.

"Let's just get unpacked and get some rest," she said breathily and with a hint of a smile. She pushed open one of the heavy doors.

The suite was fairly dark, except for one soft lamp in the living room area. Alec watched her figure as she slinked further into the darkness. A moment later, the light flicked on in the bedroom and Max opened up her luggage, which she had set on what appeared to be the softest bedspread he'd ever seen.

_Manticore's got nothin' on this place,_ he thought. Alec set his bag down in the bedroom and circled around the center office area. He felt along the wall on the other side of the bedroom and pressed a switch. Immediately, a fire started in the double-sided fireplace between the bedroom and the bathroom.

The in-ground double bathtub came into view and Alec's mouth fell open in minor surprise. It had started as a kind of joke, but he was starting to think that maybe this double bath was fate. He turned back to Max, leaving the fire lit.

"Wow, how did Logan get this place?" Max asked, dropping a couple pairs of pants into the drawer part of the closet.

Alec considered her words with an expression suggesting the bitterness of a fine dinner that had just one grain of salt too many. "He got one palace suite and one economy suite. I wonder who that was for." He slipped off his jacket and laid it on one of the corner chairs.

A knock came at the door, followed by a muffled voice. "Room service!"

Alec crossed the suite and opened one of the double doors to reveal a young boy – different than the one they'd seen in the hallway.

"Sir, you requested a room service menu, and these?" the young boy asked, holding out the menu and the bottle which read 'Jasmine Bath Bubbles'.

Alec appraised the young boy – he definitely was not Manticore. With his naturally-relaxed stance and dirty hair, this boy couldn't have been a soldier.

"Who is it?" came Max's voice from the bedroom. Alec turned his body to look back to her, which provided the young boy a direct line of sight to Max, who had just picked up a bra and matching underwear. Max eyed the boy and set her undergarments down.

"Just Room Service, honey," Alec said. "They brought the menu." Alec turned back to the boy and smiled, taking the menu and the bottle of bubbles. "Thanks, uh," Alec stuttered, looking for the boy's nametag. "Patrick."

"You're welcome, sir. If there's anything else you need, please be sure to let the front desk know."

With no further prompting, the boy left and Alec closed the door. He set the menu and the bubbles down at the desk and walked into the bedroom again. He began to unbuckle his belt, nearly sending Max into a full flashback of the day she met him.

"Um, what are you doing?" Max asked, eyeing him warily.

Alec pulled his t-shirt over his head and tossed it to one of the chairs in the room. "What's it look like I'm doing? I'm getting ready for bed." He removed his belt and sat down on the bed with his back to Max.

Max watched the muscles in his back move as he bent down to untie his shoes and slip them off.

"Oh, we're not sleeping in the same bed," Max said, moving her luggage to the chest at the end of the bed.

Alec turned to face her and she noticed the top button of his jeans had been unbuttoned. She pried her eyes away from his form as he said, "Go ahead if you want to sleep on the couch."

Max stilled and folded her arms. "I'm not sleeping on the couch," she said.

Alec stood up and pushed his jeans down. It left him in a pair of boxers and socks. "Then get in. I won't tell."

Max again eyed him suspiciously. "Don't try anything," Max said, toeing off her shoes.

Alec smiled, trying to anticipate what she would take off next. Max slipped her hands up the back of her shirt and fumbled around at her bra line. A second later, she pulled the strap of one side through her sleeve, then shoved her hand up her other sleeve and pulled the bra out of it completely. Alec laughed.

"What?" Max asked, tossing her bra to the floor.

"That's like magic or something," he offered, pulling the bedspread and sheet down before slipping into bed.

Max walked across the room and turned off the lights. Since the curtains were open, she could see out of the six doors that led to the balcony. She closed four of the curtains, then padded back to the bed.

In the meantime, Alec had watched the way the moonlight played off of her skin, totally engrossed in the beauty of it. He would have to be careful not to touch or think about her tonight.

Max climbed into the bed and pulled the blanket up to her chest. She smiled contently.

"What?" Alec asked, resting his arms outside the blanket.

"Good night, Alec," she said, turning to face the doors.

Something about that moonlight calmed her. She felt Alec's eyes seeping into her back, maybe her neck, and felt the warmth from the fire heating her skin. She imagined Alec pulling her hair away from her neck and closed her eyes.

"Night, Maxie." Alec faced the doors, too, and watched as feather-light snowflakes drifted outside in the otherwise still night, catching the moonlight in motion, and dancing playfully on Max's skin.


	7. Getting SIC

Alec heard her steady breathing first and listened to its rhythm with a newfound longing. He had never slept as soundly as he did last night, and found himself wondering if it was all because of her.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Max called, padding into the room.

From the way her feet hit the marbled bathroom tile, he knew she was barefoot and had just taken a shower, which meant he had missed out on the awkward conversation of who gets to shower first, and who has to turn around so as not to see the shower-er's nude form. And he had really wanted to have that conversation.

But in retrospect, or rhetorical retrospect as it were, she probably would have undressed and redressed right inside the shower stall, or maybe even the closet, just to avoid the entirety of the situation.

Alec opened his eyes slowly. Of course she'd be a natural vision in the morning, he thought. Her shark DNA makes her a shoo-in for queen of the non-sleepers, but her feline DNA makes that statement seem moot. She was a strange antithesis.

He tried to spend a little time taking in the sight of her, but she seemed to already be on the move. She was wearing her dark jeans and a long-sleeve, knit, deep purple pullover sweater. She looked both warm and cold.

"Jeez, from the way you've been sleeping, one might think you'd been drugged by your wife," Max teased.

Alec sat straight up in bed. "You drugged me?" He reconsidered his previous notion about how soundly he had slept and why.

"Had to find some way to get the bathroom all to myself." Max smiled wide and toweled her hair, trying to keep the wetter strands from dripping too much. "You know there are no doors in there except on the shower."

Alec stared into the vastness of the comforter and tried to remain calm. How could she do that?

"Gotcha!" Max said, giggling.

"Oh, thank god. I was about to be so pissed off at you."

Max crossed the room and reached for her boots. "Ah, well, now you can love me like a good husband should."

Which, of course, was a statement that sent thousands of potentially inappropriate images through Alec's mind. Oh, the ways he could love her like a good husband should.

"Which reminds me," he started. "There's something we need to talk about."

Max slipped one of her boots on and sat down in the chair facing the bed to tie the laces. "Oh? What's that?"

Alec swept the comforter off of his legs and swung himself around to the side of the bed, the act of which gave Max the whole of Alec's back muscles to stare at for the second time in less than twenty-four hours. She couldn't help but watch as he bent to grab his jeans.

"Well, we're married, now – and incidentally, if that's not a big sign of Logan's affection, I don't know what is – so we really need to look like we're married."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Max asked, snapping out of her trance at his sarcasm. "And, what's that supposed to mean?"

Alec smirked. "Which one?"

"Both."

"It means," he said, fishing in his pocket and producing a shiny ring with a couple of small diamonds on it, "that my bride needs a ring." Alec extended his arm out to Max.

With just one boot on, she hobbled over to him and reached for the ring, but before she could grab it, he shot his arm up into the air and held the ring high above his head.

"Hey!" she shouted, trying to reach up his arm to where the ring seemed to gleam and float effortlessly.

Alec caught her hand with his and pulled it in front of them. Without pause, he slid the ring on her finger, seeming to study the way their hands touched, and did not let go of hers. He looked up to her eyes for her reaction, but she was speechless, just staring at the ring. "Mrs. Crawford," Alec announced.

There was something in the way he said it that felt totally natural. _But obviously this couldn't be natural_, Max thought.

The paradox of Alec did everything to Max that she wished it didn't. He had named her his wife seemingly without any real emotion attached to it, but the emotionless-ness of it seemed to carry more depth than it seemed. She couldn't work it out in her brain.

Max stared back up at him, partially blushing from the scenario which just played out. "Mr. Crawford," she said, inadvertently leaning into him. Alec held his breath as she swayed closer, until their lips seemed only inches apart.

But when her ringed finger crept up his chest, much like the picture he had painted for her only two nights ago at Crash, he took in a shallow breath and then exhaled, trying to prepare for what might come next.

"Um, Alec?" she asked sweetly.

"Yeah?" he managed to mumble back.

"A toothbrush. Seriously. Look into it." With that quick quip, she smiled, spun around, slipping out of his grasp, and hobbled proudly back to the chair to address her left foot's lack of boot.

Alec stood, stupefied. He wondered what just happened, upset that a simple toothbrush could stand in the way of some unknown tension, and simultaneously thankful he had put his jeans on moments before the anticipatory events that followed.

Humorously defeated, Alec smiled and turned toward the bathroom. "A good wife would have kissed me anyway," he called.

"What time are we supposed to meet Biggs?" she asked, changing the subject and leaning over her knees to tie the laces on her other boot.

Alec cleared his throat. "Um, noon thirty. Oh, and I'll be in the shower if you want to join me."

As Max finished tying her footwear, she sat up in the chair and asked, "Hey, where'd you get this thing anyway?" She stood and maneuvered to Alec's side of the bed. She unconsciously went about making the bed.

He had heard her as he undressed in the hallway just outside the shower. He just didn't want to answer – at least not truthfully. "Ripped it off this old lady I delivered a package to a couple weeks ago. I was going to fence it, but –"

"-but turns out you grew a conscience and were hanging onto it to return it to her?"

Alec poked his head around the corner and watched as she smoothed the comforter over the bed, then sat down on it. God, she was beautiful. And deadly.

"You know they have people that do that, right?" he asked.

Max looked up to see Alec's face protruding from the corner. "Habit," she said, returning to staring straightforward, off into the shared hell of childhood they called Manticore. She stared for a full minute before she realized he was still looking at her. "Now would you please get ready? It's almost quarter 'til."

Alec opened the shower door and twisted the knob, sending an awesome array of quickly-heating water into the middle of the shower stall. He checked around the corner one last time to see if Max was still there, and found her admiring the ring. He smiled to himself.

When they arrived at Il Giardino, the two transgenics were taken aback by its beautiful design. It had various live plans throughout the restaurant, lots of natural light, marbled flooring and tabletops, thriving ivy, and rich-colored walls, draped in deep purples and greens.

"Is your friend here?" Max asked as they waited for the maitre'd to seat them.

Alec scanned the tables just as the maitre d' returned to his post to see them waiting.

"May I help you?"

"No, thanks, we see our party," Alec stated, ushering Max into the dining area.

She looked back and forth between Alec and the already-populated tables to see if there was any recognition on his face. He almost stopped them at one table with a young-looking businessman in a three-piece suit with wild red hair (but who Max found pretty cute). Turned out he had slowed down to let a couple pass them in the almost-crowded path between tables, but when he slowed, he turned toward Max. The couple bumped into him and he consequently bumped into Max. She lost her balance and started to topple backwards.

Alec caught her by the forearms and pulled her forward. "You alright?"

"Yeah."

Alec slid his hands down her arms and stopped at her hands. They were so warm on hers, despite the chill air of the restaurant, that it made her feel slightly hot – hot enough that she couldn't open her eyes completely.

"Thanks," she whispered lowly.

Being that close to him for the second time today made her feel weak with want.

Max wondered what was going on. Was she in heat or something? If so, that would be really bad timing, considering she had to share a hotel room with him. And a things she didn't know if she'd be able to handle it if she was in heat.

Alec moved his hands away from hers and turned so he was in the walkway. He led her to another table with note card on it, which, in beautiful handwritten calligraphy, read: Reserved. Mr. & Mrs. Crawford.

Alec pulled the chair out for Max and she sat down, hands folded politely in her lap. He then pulled out his own chair and seated himself. They both looked around the restaurant. Despite the fact that she wasn't sure what Biggs looked like, she assumed he was a tall, dark-haired, handsome man about Alec's age with a charming air about him, because as Original Cindy said, Manticore 'sure knew how to make 'em pretty.'

"So where is he?" she asked.

"Ah, I'm right here," came a voice from behind her. "Now what are your other two wishes?"

Max turned her body in the seat to see a tall, dark-haired man about the same age as Alec. He was wearing a nice black suit with a white dress shirt and a deep red tie. He smiled at Max before turning his attention to his old Commanding Officer.

He wasn't as handsome as she had expected. Or maybe he just paled in comparison to Alec. Or maybe this 'SuperCharm' was supposed to make him seem more handsome.

Max shrugged off the thoughts and stood to join the already-standing Mr. Crawford.

Alec reached out to shake Biggs' hand. "Biggsy!" he greeted. "How's it been?"

Biggs pulled him into a brotherly hug. "Missed ya, man. You going by 'Alec' out here?"

He nodded, but then remembered their aliases. "It's Tom Crawford," he said, very straightforward, and as if presenting her, turned to Max and added, "And this is my lovely wife, Katarina."

"Lovely, indeed," Biggs said, reaching for her hand.

Max smiled and shook his hand with a gentle squeeze. "Nice to meet you."

Biggs took his time shaking her hand and didn't let go right away. He stared into her. "You're an angel," he said.

She blushed momentarily. This wasn't the kind of stuff that usually worked on her, but she felt the need to respond. And she considered that maybe he had jackrabbit in his cocktail.

Max laughed out loud at the thought.

"I mean, for marrying this guy," Biggs added, breaking the handshake and slapping his friend on the chest.

Max shot a glance over to Alec and saw he was already watching her reaction. "You know we're not really-"

"Not really interested in Italian?" Biggs finished, looking around suspiciously.

Max caught on. "Right, no actually I love Italian."

"Awesome, then I have a shot!" Biggs said in a near-whisper.

Max looked down toward the table.

Alec did not like the way Biggs was acting one bit. "So what's going on, Biggs? Why the suit?"

The three seated themselves and Biggs leaned in toward them both.

"I run this restaurant," he said. "For about a year now."

"They don't care that you're, you know," Max started, trying to point to her barcode inconspicuously, "um, different?"

Biggs nodded. "I was on a deep cover when I first got here, and then I decided to keep on mission after Purgatory burnt to the ground. They never knew I was different."

Max was surprised. She was used to impersonating multiple people, even within the same day, but one false personality for years on end, now that was different. "How did you manage not to get caught?"

"Every two weeks I drive out of town and I see this wonderful woman over at Think Ink. She's the only normal one who knows about me."

"Besides Lola," Alec added with a knowing smile, simultaneously trying to passively remind Max that Biggs wasn't as charming as he considered himself to be.

Biggs blushed, instantly remembering the voluptuous woman from so long ago. "Well, yeah, besides her."

"You gonna tell me how you got that name?" Max asked, smiling flirtatiously. "Or you just gonna let me guess?" Max pretended to peek over the table and look down.

The corner of Biggs' mouth curved up as he raised an eyebrow. "Ask Lola," he said, looking down a moment in reminiscence. "Hey, you two hungry? I've got the kitchen preparing a delectable pasta dish for you. Should be ready any minute."

"As long as it's not Pasta Tricolore," Max said, thinking about Logan again. She glanced down at her wedding ring and thought about what Alec had said earlier.

She didn't understand why he would agree to send her and Alec on a mission together as a married couple, but with separate rooms. Or at least they were separate before the hotel screwed up. If they were supposed to be fighting, that wouldn't make for a very good alias – it would just attract all kinds of weird attention. Maybe he was trying to tell her something.

"So what's the deal with this member of your unit?" Max asked, not realizing how dirty she must sound.

Biggs looked over to Alec, his smile fading as Max coldly turned the subject onto the business at hand. He took a breath. "It's Trip," he said.

Alec shifted in his seat, anger building in his eyes. "Shit," he said. "What happened?"

"Trip?" Max asked.

Biggs addressed Max first. "Trip, as in 777," he said. "We also used to call him 'Lucky', but he didn't really like that one. Something about it being super girly."

'He' didn't really like that one, Max thought, repeating Biggs' words. Trip is a man. Max was both noticeably relieved, then immediately upset. "What's the plan?"

"The plan is to get Trip the hell out of there," Alec said, again as emotionless as earlier. Again, Max felt there was something buried underneath it.

Max spoke with urgency. "The plan has got to be that we get them all the hell out! We can't just pick Trip because he was in your unit. We need to get all those kids out of there, too!"

Biggs tried to calm them both down before they started garnering more than the table's share of attention. "Hey, guys, try to keep your voices down. Neither of my plans will work if I'm outed days before the job. I have a plan for both scenarios; I just needed more people to pull it off."

"Well then what's the plan, Biggs?" Alec demanded, slipping into his old role.

Biggs sat back in his chair and spoke quietly. "There's an event tomorrow night – they call it an Investor's Casino Night, held at the Lux. Strictly a black tie event, and strictly by invitation, which I got for you two."

He looked over to Max and smiled. "You'll have no problem pulling off a dress. The problem will be finding a dress that's as beautiful as you are – and finding a dress that won't put you on the wrong guys' radars."

Max sat back. "And who's the right guy?" she played. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the way Alec shifted in his seat.

Biggs smiled again – a really sweet smile.

Alec rolled his eyes. Was he like this with all women?

Max smiled, but retuned her attention to the matter at hand. "Who's collecting?"

Biggs gave her a stern look. "The Rose family."

Max didn't know anything about the Rose family and whether or not they would actually pose a threat to three adult and some adolescent transgenics. But the look in his eyes suggested this might be a difficult exit strategy. She considered calling Logan to see if his contacts knew anything about the Rose family that might help them.

"And how does Trip fit in?" Alec asked.

"Trip and the other boys are working as waiters," Biggs answered.

_The other boys, _Max thought. _Trip is just a little kid. _Max looked over to Alec, surprised, and if she allowed herself to feel it, touched by his urgency to help this little kid. She gave him a worried look.

"Trip's supposed to make the drops – which means he has to go up to the twelfth floor on the hour with an armed guard, and meet up with the younger Rose brother to handle the switch. But he's on probation for a screw-up last time, so if he doesn't perform-" Biggs trailed and stopped.

_Then they retire him, _Max finished.

A waiter approached their table. "We'll go over the rest tomorrow," Biggs said. "For now, let's eat. And then maybe later tonight we can all meet up at Tease for a nightcap?"

"Tease?" Max asked.

_Nightcap? Who still says that? _Alec wondered. He leaned toward Max and said, "See, honey? They named a bar after you!"

Max slapped him in the arm.

"Ow!"

Biggs chuckled at his friend's misfortune.

" You always make it hurt so good, Maxie." Alec smiled cockily at his friend.

" Ow!"


	8. Getting More Than Bargained For

Tease was a semi-upscale bar just outside Il Giardino about four blocks up with low-hung chandelier lighting, themselves dimly lit, and deep-mahogany leather booths and stools lining an almost empty barroom. The atmosphere seemed rich with opulence, despite the mechanical bull which sat in the middle of the room like a lame cow.

There weren't many patrons at this early hour, but there was a small bachelorette party in effect; from the looks of it, the bride and her three friends, all of whom were trained on Biggs and Alec, who sat in a corner booth sipping Scotch.

"So you still like Scotch," Biggs said, savoring his next sip and checking out the bridal party.

"Oh, absolutely," Alec said, tasting a gulp's worth. "The only thing that can really get me drunk."

"Hey remember in Cairo we drank those two bottles of Scotch waiting for those guards to change shifts, and-"

Alec was laughing already as he continued the story. "And we had to abort the mission because we were laughing so loud we were gonna get caught? Yeah…"

Their shared laughter died down.

"I can't believe Manticore's really gone," the dark-haired transgenic said with a slight air of nostalgia.

"I can. That place was awful."

"You didn't used to think so," Biggs retorted.

"Yeah, but all that was before I really knew what was out here, you know?" Alec lifted both hands to suggest there was a whole world he knew almost nothing about. He peeked over his shoulder at the bachelorette party.

"Bullshit, man, you were out on solos all the time."

"Yeah I was. And I was mindless. Soulless."

Biggs sat back in surprise. "Who's talking right now, you or someone else? 'Cause it doesn't sound like you."

_It sounds like Max_, Alec told himself.

A small smile crept onto Biggs' face just as one of the bridesmaids, a petite and perky blonde, approached the table.

"Hi," she said, her high-pitched voice filling the booth.

"Hi," Biggs responded confidently. He seemed to get an idea. "How are you?"

The girl looked away coyly, then back. "I'm good. Just wondering if you two would like to join us? It's our friend Gina's bachelorette party, and as you can see, this place isn't really jumpin'. But maybe with you, it would be."

Biggs softened. "Oh, you know normally I'd say yes, but my girlfriend would kill me if she found out I was doing body shots with other women." _Seed planted, _Biggs thought.

The girl turned her attention to Alec. "How about you, Sexy?"

Alec smiled appreciatively. "I'm just catching up with my friend here – I haven't seen him in years, so I'll pass this time."

The girl frowned. Then Biggs frowned.

"But I know it took some guts for you to come over here – so I can at least buy you all a round. What do you say?" He flashed a crooked smile.

"Patron," she said, smiling.

_Success. _"All right, I'll have the bartender send some right over."

"Can I at least get your names?" she asked. "Trish and the girls have a bet." She shot a glance back to her table.

Both soldiers thought about their designations first, and remained tight-lipped.

"I won't tell them if you're embarrassed," she offered.

"I'm Alec," he said, then looked to Biggs expectantly.

"Biggs," he conceded.

The girl's eyes lit up. "Biggs, huh?" The girl turned back to Alec. "Well, thank you, Alec and Biggs. I'm Kristana."

As Kristana walked back to her table, Alec signaled the bartender. "Their next round's on me. And can we get a couple more fingers?"

Biggs laughed. "Yeah, that's what Lola said!"

Alec burst into laughter. "Yeah, she did, didn't she?"

"The things that woman could do…" Biggs trailed, a giant smile on his face. He snapped out of his reminiscing and asked, "So what's going on with that?" He motioned toward the small gaggle of women downing their shots halfway across the bar.

"What do you mean?" Alec played dumb, shooting a deceitful smile at his old friend.

"You telling me you're not interested at all in making it a full house over there?" Biggs wagged his eyebrows subtly. He was clearly picking up on Alec's lack of attention to the bachelorettes and wondering what had changed in less than two years that would tame his buddy.

Alec looked to the table, where not only Kristana, but another bridesmaid, were both shooting him bedroom eyes. He turned back to Biggs. "What about you? You don't have a girlfriend."

Biggs threw his hands up. "Guilty. But neither do you. I only told them I have a girlfriend so I could see how you reacted."

Alec played at looking betrayed. "Why?"

"Because I know you."

"I'm supposed to be married here," Alec said defensively. "I can't do anything to get made or else I can't help Trip."

"Yeah, I'm not buying it, 49-" Biggs stopped himself. "Alec. You've already compromised it by telling that sweet foursome of ladies your assumed name."

Alec sat back, considering whether or not to let the Commanding Officer role surge to the surface to reprimand his SIC.

Except doing that seemed like it would make him feel like that nameless, soulless killing machine Manticore had trained him to be. But then again, he had to remind himself why he was here – to save Trip. And how was he going to do it? By employing the techniques Manticore taught him.

Alec remained quiet and conflicted.

"I think you got something' going on with the lovely and talented Mrs. Crawford," Biggs finally said, and with a knowing grin. "It makes sense. All the uncomfortable shifting at dinner. All the sideways glances you give her when she's not looking at you."

Alec couldn't hide his discomfort as Biggs talked about Max. Sure, Max was hot, but that didn't mean he felt anything more for her than a lustful daydream. Right? "No, there's nothing going on between us."

Biggs took a big swig and finished his Scotch just as the bartender dropped off their next round. He didn't miss that Alec had said 'us,' which in his book meant there was some kind of subliminal suggestion. "But not for lack of trying, right?"

Alec stared into the depths of his amber ale. "I guess we're not like that," he said, and immediately regretted it.

'_Not like that.' _Just the mention of those words made him feel guilty and sick simultaneously. _That's how Max talks about Logan. _He pursed his lips. _And that's how I talk about her._ He sighed. _But that's not how she talks about me._

Biggs watched the emotions play across his face as Alec tried to figure this out in his mind.

"Alec, man, I'm sorry. I thought she was free game."

Alec looked up from his drink, conceding. What did he think was going to happen when an obnoxious flirt saw Max? Walk the other direction? "It's cool. I'm surprised you weren't trying harder – I mean, with what I did to you. The Olivia Incident."

Biggs brushed off the memory. "We were thirteen. That shit doesn't matter anymore. What I want to know is: what's the problem? You've never been one to want for a lady. Why not just go after her? Is she Lydecker's daughter or something?"

Alec chuckled. "I think she kind of hates my guts!"

"No way, dude. She digs you."

"Digs me, like digs me a grave," Alec said, and took a gulp. "She was practically undressing you, Biggsy."

"Yeah, probably just to watch you squirm. Women love making us squirm," he said, looking over to the table of bridesmaids and smiling. "It's like their secret desire or something."

Kristana winked at him and one of the other girls seemed to stick out her chest a little more. All of them giggled that same giggle Alec and Biggs would always remember from the all-girls school.

Alec slammed the remainder of his Scotch. "Even if that was true, she's in love with another guy."

Biggs' mouth fell open momentarily. "That sucks," he said flatly. "You sure?"

Alec nodded. "She's probably off calling him right now and giving him a wide load of shit for making us Man and Wife."

With a newfound determination, Biggs waved the bartender over. "In that case, it's time to get you sauced, my friend." He waved for the women to join their table instead. "Ladies!"

* * *

After lunch, Max found herself wandering the shops along the street, looking for a dress to wear to the event. 'Window shopping' as she had come to know it, had felt like a waste of time when she was younger – after Manticore. What did she even know of want and value? And style? It wasn't until she was with a foster family who had a couple of daughters that she started to understand fashion and the psyche of young girls in a post-pulse era. (And she had found them to be kind of vain.)

But then again, being partially raised in a military environment rendered her a little shy in the feminine ways category. She mostly dressed for practicality and the occasion – as if she'd be playing a role.

When she was out on her own, she blended in, copying the looks of the girls and women around her. Bye-bye cammies, hello civvies.

And here she was, getting ready to play another role, another set of objectives to complete. She'd need a dress that could potentially hide a weapon or two, but that wouldn't draw too much attention.

The first shop that had a dress even remotely appropriate had a sequined hem at every seam and made Max dizzy. As she left the store, she saw a prepaid cell phone store, into which she promptly walked.

When she came out with a cell phone, she immediately dialed Logan. There were some things she needed to know, and maybe he could help with the Roses.

"Hey," he answered.

"How'd you know it was me?"

"You're the only person who'd call on a cell I don't have the number for."

"Oh," she said, stopping at another display window.

In front of her on a headless mannequin, she saw a beautiful blue dress with strappy shoulders and an empire waist. She decided she wanted to try it on and walked into the store. "Well, I could really use your help with something." She eyed the walls for the dress she'd just seen in the window.

"Sure, what's up?"

She spied the dress. There was only one left in her size. She called out to the associate. "Excuse me? Can I try this on?"

Silence fell on the other end as Logan waited for her answer.

"Hang on a sec," she said.

Logan heard a door close. "What are you doing?"

"Trying on some clothes," she said. "I have this thing to go to. Anyway, what do you know about the Rose family? They're connected."

Max heard the tick-tick-tick of Logan's keyboard. She wondered if their connection was really good, or if he was just a loud typist. It seemed like he was always near something that made electronic noise.

"Not much, apparently," came his voice, shaking her out of wonder. "New on the scene. Only been in business for about five years. They're new money. Six brothers, the two oldest of which – Edward and Christopher – they're the ring leaders. They the ones who have Alec's friend?"

"Yeah," Max said, lifting off her top.

"You'll need to go bra-less for the event," the sales clerk told Max through the door.

Max heard a commotion on Logan's end. "Everything okay?"

"Um, yeah, I just dropped the phone. Sorry."

If it was even possible, Max thought she heard Logan's face turn red. "It's a dress," Max said, remembering that the only time Logan had seen her in a dress was at his family's wedding a couple years back.

"What color?" he asked.

"Cobalt blue," she answered.

It was silent on the line for a moment. Max returned her line of thinking to the mission. "What else?"

Max shimmied out of her jeans and looked at the dress in the mirrors as Logan tap-tap-tapped more. This dress just wasn't going to work. It was pretty, and might have been too eye-catching. Plus it wouldn't leave much to the imagination when it came to hiding weapons.

"Looks like, wait, what's this?"

Max waited for the reveal as she adjusted the waist of the dress.

"They're connected to four other families out there, and two out here. They're not at the top."

"What does that mean?"

"One of the reports indicates the Rose family is on thin ice with one of the other families in Aurora."

"Which one?" she asked. Then, to the sales clerk, she asked, "Excuse me? Do you have anything that shows a little more skin?"

"Uh, well, it's the Morino family. This doesn't make sense. What I'm seeing suggests the Roses are indebted to the Morinos for quite a sum of money. And the Morinos are old school. Multi-generational. They are not playing around."

"Okay, so who's to say Alec and I don't help the Morinos out and get rid of their competition – let them collect on their debt? Free the kids and send them to California or something. You know what they say, mafia families and their money are soon parted."

She sensed hesitation on Logan's end.

"You can't just send them all – I mean, I can get in touch with my California contacts and we can get them new IDs, but that's going to take some time."

The sales clerk returned to Max with another dress. It was a red sheath dress with slits up the sides of both legs. Good for running, but too attention grabbing with the color. "No, he won't like this one," she told the clerk. "Thanks, anyway." She spoke into the phone again. "So I'll set you up with Alec's contact here in Denver, but we really need to get those kids out. We don't have time to sit on our hands and wait."

"In due time, Max. Who won't like it?"

"I don't want to wait. Their lives are on the line every day they're stuck here, and if you can't help me, I'll find my own way." Max pulled the dress up over her head and hung it back on the hanger.

Logan huffed. "I'll see what I can do."

"As long as you're ready by tomorrow night."

"It's not a guarantee, Max. I may not be able to do this all by tomorrow night, so stop pushing."

Max was getting frustrated. She pulled her jeans back on.

"Hey, how's it going with the hotel?" Logan asked, trying to change the subject.

Max sandwiched the phone between her shoulder and ear to button her jeans, frustrated she wasn't getting what she wanted, what these kids needed. "Fine. They had a mix-up with the rooms, so we had to share. And what the hell, Logan? Mr. and Mrs. Crawford?"

Logan nearly dropped his phone again.

"I mean, it's a tough cover! He really rides my nerves sometimes. I guess that's what married life is like, right?" Max found herself almost chuckling at the idea of Alec coming home after a hard day's work and Max pulling a casserole out of the oven, preparing for dinner.

"No, Max, you were supposed to be brother and sister. Isn't that how you always described your unit?"

Max felt the anger rising suddenly and quickly in her throat. Anger and desolation. "Alec is not my brother," she said lowly.

_Ben was, _she thought. Even though they shared genetics, Ben and Alec were two very different people, and she had a hard time believing Logan would even suggest a brother/sister team, especially considering her history.

Logan knew he'd made a mistake the second her voice turned to that low, quiet pitch. "Max, I'm so-"

"I gotta go," she said, starting to cry. She didn't understand why she was crying – she never cried. Not like this. "Hit you up tomorrow."

Max hung up the phone and sat facing the mirror, staring beyond her blurry reflection and into her past.

* * *

Max was getting ready to step into the just-drawn Jasmine scented bubble bath when she heard the hotel room door open. She blurred to the robe she'd left on the chair and slipped it on just in time to see Biggs setting Alec down on the couch. Alec was smiling wide.

"What happened?" Max asked, then smelled the liquor. "Are you guys drunk?"

Biggs looked to Alec and they both burst into laughter. Then Alec shushed them noisily. "We'll get caught!" he whispered.

"Yes," Biggs said. "Him more than me." Biggs pointed to Alec, as if there was another 'him' in the room he could have been referring to, but wasn't.

"Max!" Alec shouted throatily, looking up to the ceiling.

"Yes?"

"I can't see you!"

Max leaned over him so her face was in his line of vision.

"There you are!" he said, raising his hands to the sides of her face. "Stop spinning."

Max stepped out of his grasp and looked at Biggs sternly. "You put him up to this?"

The truth was, she had spent an afternoon pissed off at Logan and all she wanted was to talk to Alec. He was the only one like her who knew about Ben, the only person she could trust with the vulnerable-emotion-crap she was feeling. But she couldn't do that because Biggs just got him drunk.

"Not really," he answered, taking a bottle out of his jacket pocket. "But we brought some back for you." He waved the bottle in front of her.

Max snatched the bottle from him in a blur.

"Jeez!" he exclaimed. "You know what's funny? You're already a blur and you're blurring even more! You're like a strobe light or something!" He laughed.

"We brought some back for you!" Alec said, unknowingly repeating Biggs. He lifted his head. "'Cause I know it's not easy being married to me!"

Max looked back over to Biggs, set the bottle down on the coffee table, and returned her stare to Alec. "You're kinda sweet when you're drunk, aren't you?"

"Mm-hmm," Alec answered, nodding exaggeratedly with his eyes closed. He made a strange gurgle sound.

"What was that?" Max asked.

Biggs leaned forward and listened as the sound repeated. It was emanating from Alec's stomach. "Um, he might have eaten some wings and drank some Scotch and eaten some onion rings and drank some more tequila," Biggs rambled. "And Vodka, rum, and Jägermeister."

Max looked slightly worried. "Is he gonna throw up?"

"No, I don't think so," Biggs started. "Have you ever been drunk enough to throw up?"

Max thought about it. "The best I ever got was buzzed."

"Well, this dude and me," Biggs began, again pointing to Alec to make sure Max knew to which 'dude' he was referring. "We really tested the limits of the modern X5 Killing Machine. It is possible for us transgenics to get three sheets. You just gotta know what to drink, and how much."

"Floodgates!" Alec shouted and hoisted himself out of the couch's seemingly vice-like grasp. He walked toward the bathroom slowly, being careful not to run into anything that was already immobile.

Max gave Biggs a questioning look.

"It's a theory," Biggs said, laughing. "Once you open 'em, you gotta go every ten minutes."

Max smiled, then called out to Alec. "Don't fall in the bath!"

Alec made it around the corner and into the bathroom. Max and Biggs heard the door shut.

It grew very quiet in the living room area.

"So who's Asha?" Biggs asked, breaking up their silence.

Max almost grimaced, except she found herself wondering how Biggs knew about her. Had to have been something Alec said.

_Which means he was telling Biggs all about Asha – how pretty and poetic and blonde and normal-all-over she really is._

"She's a friend of a friend – kind of a revolutionary fighter. She's aiight for an ordinary." _What am I saying? _

"Ah, I see," Biggs responded, standing. "Well I still don't get how anyone could choose her over you."

Max smiled at the compliment. This guy was charming, even if he was cheesy at times. "Well, I don't think they're like that," Max said, referring to Logan and Asha, "But not because she's not trying."

Biggs walked toward the door and Max followed a few feet behind.

Max took a breath. "Okay. So, my contact can have IDs made, but we gotta get those kids out first," she said. _And he may not even be able to get the IDs made._

"Okay, well let's rally tomorrow at the restaurant maybe an hour or two before the event. If you guys can be packed and ready to go, I can get a bus for the kids and this whole thing can be just a memory."

Biggs left and as Max closed the door behind him, she noticed exactly how quiet it was. When she turned the corner toward the restroom, the door was still shut.

"Alec?" she called through the door. "You decent?"

She waited for an answer, but when none came, she knocked. "Alec? You okay? I'm coming in."

She twisted the knob and walked in. Alec was sitting against the wall, and at some point had removed his shirt. She knelt at his side. "Alec, are you okay?"

Alec tried to see her through squinted eyes. "I threw up on my shirt," he said. He looked exhausted.

"Come on, Mr. Crawford." Max pulled at his arm and he allowed her to help him up. She walked him down the hall to the bathtub and made him sit on the side chair. She untied and removed his shoes as he leaned back in the chair.

"Maxie, why did you take off my shoes?"

Max peeled of his socks. "Because you're getting in the bathtub."

"I am?"

"Yep."

Max pulled his hand and helped him up. He was still wearing pants, and there was no way she would undress that part of him, especially with him in his current state of mind. She led him toward the bath. "Big step down," she guided.

Once in the warm bubble bath, Alec turned and laid in it. "Thank you, Max," he said.

"No big deal. I'll take a bath later." _Not in this super swanky double bubble bathtub, but it's not like I'll never have a bath again. _Max found her way back to the chair and sat down facing Alec.

"For everything," he continued as if he hadn't heard her at all. "For believing in me."

Max smiled and watched his face as he drifted to sleep. She drew her knees up and leaned on the armrest.

Sometime in the night, or maybe it was the early hours before dawn, Alec woke up, freezing. He only kind of remembered how he got in the bathtub, but the water had turned cold and there were no bubbles left, and he really needed to get dry and dressed.

Some light spilled through the window and shined off the bathwater into his eyes. He squinted, and realized that not far off in the distance sat Max, cuddled up in a robe, looking sweet in her sleep.

He wondered how she could have fallen asleep. She almost never slept. And on top of that, she wouldn't have fallen asleep if she was trying to make sure he didn't slip unconsciously under the water and drown. Despite the brightness of those rays which streaked the room, he caught the light reflection from her hand. _The ring._

She was wearing a robe and a ring, and nothing else. Something about it made him smile. He splashed some water while getting his feet under himself, which woke Max up, and as soon as he stood, he felt a wash of blood to the head.

"Let me get you a robe," Max said.


	9. Getting Trip

Max let the dress fall like water over her body as she prepared for Casino Night. The washroom in their hotel room was small, but their agreement was that Max would get ready in the bathroom and Alec would get ready outside the bathroom.

Despite the fact that they were 'Man and Wife,' or the fact that Manticore treated them all the same and until the heats began, had bunked them all together, and could have given less of a crap who had seen what, they were living in the outside world now, with new knowledge of how human beings interacted, and how men and women could potentially interact, and they just weren't ready to deal with that. At least Max wasn't. She had only ever 'been like that' with ordinaries (and as Alec hoped she would never find out, so had he).

Max tugged at her dress a little.

"You almost ready?" Alec asked, his voice slightly muffled by the door.

"Yeah, just a few more minutes," she said, adjusting the empire waist of the dress for the best support. She looked at herself in the small mirror.

She was wearing a black, plunging v-neck dress with a cinched empire waist and a flowing asymmetrical hem. It was both beautiful and practical; she knew the moment she tried it on she'd be able to run in it, if necessary.

She had left her hair completely straight and pinned back a bit at the sides. As she opened her light purple eyeliner, Alec said, "Biggs is already over there whenever we're ready."

"Oh, okay," she responded, lining the lower lid of her left eye.

Only half-made up, she stared into her own eyes, realizing the gravity of the situation.

_I can't believe this. I'm getting dolled up for a formal event in a swanky hotel on a mission to save children from mobsters, and I get to wear this gorgeous dress and go with a gorgeous guy, and –_

Max stopped herself. _Gorgeous guy?_ She noticed her reflection seemed to be smiling. _Well, it's not exactly a secret that Manticore makes 'em pretty,_ she thought, recalling Original Cindy's words from so long ago.

_But they didn't exactly make 'em to develop a conscience,_ she countered, lining the rest of her eye with the soft purple.

Yet that seemed to be what Alec had been doing. He never cared about the peril of others (unless it affected him) until he met Max. Since then, he had failed to kill her and her friends, gone on several missions for Eyes Only, and become friends with many of Max's friends. He was even well-respected in the transgenic community for his leadership and strength.

_What am I doing? Listing his qualities?_

Max finally began to line her other eye. "Hey Alec?" she asked, after some silence.

"Yeah."

"I just wanted to say that I, um," she paused. Why did this seem like such a difficult thing to say? "I think you're doing the right thing."

Though she couldn't see him, Alec was giving her a gentle smile, not a few feet outside the door.

"At first I wasn't sure, but I'm really glad you trust me to help you."

Alec stared at the door at the very height he assumed she'd be if there wasn't a door separating them, surprised. "Max, there isn't anyone else I trust more."

Now Max was surprised. She had considered herself a trustworthy person, but she hadn't realized that she would value his opinion of her as much as she seemed to be. She wanted to say something – anything – but no words made it out.

A small silence settled between them. Max assumed he had walked away.

_Stupid, _she thought. She reached for her mascara and lip gloss. _I could have said something. Now he probably thinks his opinion means nothing to me._

She finished her makeup and gave herself one last look before opening the door – to an empty hall and barren wall. Alec had put her shoes outside the door. Her feet slid into the shoes and she picked up her clutch, opening it and fumbling around inside it for something.

"Max! Ready?" Alec shouted before turning the corner. He had been moving so fast he nearly ran into her. He had to jerk his body backwards to offset his momentum, and that's when he finally caught sight of her – of all of her.

His line of sight started at her collarbone – which was perfectly defined. He followed it down the plunge of her dress, realized he was staring, and looked up to her face, which held a slight blush and a smile.

"Hey, watch where I'm going!" she said playfully, shoving him lightly with her left hand – the hand with the ring on her finger.

Max stared at him for a moment, too. Alec's tuxedo fit him perfectly, and it seemed such a departure from what he normally wore, but he was clean and all the lines of the suit made him seem like a model. It drew attention to his face – and his face seemed to be staring at her again. Or still. She wasn't sure which.

Just looking at her heated him. He couldn't find a single word to say.

"What?" Max asked. "Do I have something on my face or in my hair or something?" Max felt her hair for anything at which he might have been staring.

Alec cleared his throat as if he was about to say something and wanted it to be very clear. He took a moment to swallow. He reached out to touch her hair, letting it slide through his fingers like soft liquid. It was so smooth, just as he had expected.

Max turned her face in toward his palm and rubbed her cheekbone against it, eyes closed as if she was savoring his touch.

"You look beautiful," Alec pushed out in a whisper.

Maybe it was just the whole situation and the adrenaline, but Alec had never wanted to kiss her so badly than he did right at that moment. He stepped closer to her; they were nearly touching.

Max's heart beat a little faster with each passing second. She even closed her eyes and tilted her head in preparation, wondering what the hell she was doing, but banishing the thought as soon as it occurred. She could feel his breath at her lips, but before he had a chance to close the remaining distance, a knock came at the door, startling them.

They separated quickly, embarrassed.

Alec cleared his throat again. "I'll get it," he said, breezing by her and leaving her in the wake of his amazing scent.

"Okay, I'll just stay here," she said, staring straight at the double tub. _My legs won't move anyway. And is he wearing cologne, or is that just his scent?_

She tried to take a moment to collect herself. _What just happened? Or didn't happen? He was about to kiss me, right? And I was about to let him? And I wanted him to? What am I doing? He doesn't even like me. Just these stupid clothes making us feel like we're something we're not._

Max looked down to her ring with some sadness in her face. She dug back into her clutch and pulled out a white gold ring. She had picked it up while dress shopping, because if she had to wear one, so did he.

Max, having thoroughly talked herself down from the amazingly vulnerable event that _didn't _just happen, turned on her heels and walked toward the front door. "Who was at the door?" she asked calmly, seeing Alec leaning against the wall.

"Bell hop. I just sent our luggage down. Everything will be ready when we gotta run."

"Good. You about ready, Mr. Crawford?"

Alec wondered if it was just him or if Max seemed a little cold. "Might take one last look at the double bubble bath we'll never have," he said, staring toward the bathtub blissfully.

Max seemed to have already brushed the (now) non-topic away. She was trying to get in mission mode.

"No?" He tried to brush off her nonchalance. "Alright, yeah, I'm ready. You?"

Max flipped the ring toward him. He caught it at the same time he realized what it was. "Put this on," she ordered, opening the door.

"Yes, ma'am," Alec said.

* * *

The elegantly-dressed transgenic twosome seemed to slide effortlessly through Il Giardino's main dining area and toward the back VIP room Biggs had reserved for their private party. Max had looped her arm through Alec's as they passed the other patrons on their way back, garnering their stares and whispers. Max had refused to look at any of them.

"I feel like we're under a microscope," she said, speaking softly.

"That's because they're all staring at you," Alec said, watching for her response. When she looked to him, he said, "I know I am. You're gorgeous."

She wasn't sure what to say. He'd just complimented her for the second time in under an hour, both times seemingly genuine. She waited to hear if this time was in jest, but he only smiled. Max grinned and looked ahead. Maybe he was just playing a role.

When they reached the VIP room, they were astounded by its beauty. The ceiling was riddled with various skylights, which patrons could peek up through to the heavens (when it wasn't snowing). Ivy clung to the walls and vined its way about the ceiling, which made the tiny white lights look like small flowers or ivory stars.

They found their table and Max slipped off her jacket, noticing the cozy two-way fireplace giving off a comforting wave of warmth.

No sooner had Alec hung their coats than Biggs walked in, smiling and seemingly very comfortable. "You two clean up nice," he greeted, shaking Alec's hand. He noticed the ring but expertly kept himself from showing that he had noticed. "Please, have a seat."

The three sat themselves and Max pulled her napkin onto her lap.

"So what's the plan, Biggsy?" Alec rubbed his hands together.

Biggs sat taller. He wasn't sure what he had expected to happen, but at least he had expected Alec to take point; he was the CO, after all. It made sense, though. This was Biggs' mission and Alec and Max were just here to help make it happen.

"Right to business, then. Okay. Here's the deal." Biggs checked the doorway for waiters and staff as he spoke. "Trip will take the 'winnings' up to the twelfth floor presidential suite every hour on the hour. He will be escorted by an armed guard."

_Easy_, thought Max. She took a sip of water.

"And that's where you two come in." He looked to Max for a moment before continuing. "You two will arrive at about 9:30. You'll gamble your money away – don't worry, I have money for you – until about midnight." Biggs looked back to Alec. "Then you'll intercept them in the elevator, incapacitate the guard, and Trip will take you to the other kids. As long as you can get them all down the east wing fire escape, we'll be golden."

"You got the bus?" Max asked.

"Yep."

"And we'll jump in our car and meet back up with you outside the state?" Alec asked.

Biggs nodded. "That's the plan."

"How will we know you're in position?" Alec continued.

"And what if we can't get them all?" Max added.

Biggs leaned in to Max. "Trip will make sure they're all accounted for," he said, and turning to Alec, continued, "and I'll be on comms, so you'll know because you'll hear me say it."

Biggs fished in his pocket and removed two ear buds, passing one each to Max and Alec. Alec inconspicuously put the bud in his pocket as Max slipped hers into her clutch.

"Sounds like a simple plan," Alec said. "Do you have a plan B just in case?"

"Yeah, if anything goes wrong, we'll reassess and abort if necessary."

"Max is really good at thinking on her feet, so if you need any help, let us know."

_What was that? Alec just complimented me on my mission improvisation?_

She must have been making a shocked face, because Alec looked right at her. "What? You are!"

"Okay, well, that's the plan," Biggs said. "You got about an hour to kill, so let's eat."

* * *

Before entering the Investor's Casino Night, Max and Alec put the tiny, flesh-colored ear buds in their ears while reviewing the mission around the corner from the back entrance.

"So how do you want to do this?" he asked.

Max stared into the distance as she adjusted her hair to partially cover her ears. "Well, maybe break me off a piece of that brick in your pocket and we'll split up inside. It's gonna be a challenge to purposely lose."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Alec said, taking the stack of hundred dollar bills from his pocket. He flipped through about half and handed it to Max. "When I was on solos, I made a little extra dough at the casinos."

"And at the ring," Max said, referring to his time as the famous Monty Cora. She tried to fold the bills but it was too thick. She halved what was in her hand, handed him back one of the stacks, and folded the other one. She slid it into her dress at the bust.

Alec was, of course, mesmerized. "Why do women do that?" he asked with half a grin.

"Partly so guys'll look and partly to make sure we don't lose it," she answered.

_So she just did that so I would intentionally look?_ he asked himself. _Maybe she doesn't hate my guts. Or maybe Biggs and I are both right: she hates my guts and women love to make men squirm._ He chuckled to himself and checked his ensemble.

"Biggsy, you read me?"

"Loud and clear," came Biggs' voice through their comms. "I don't hear Max. Shout out for me."

"That's what Lola said!" Alec interjected.

_Ugh, stupid boys,_ Max thought, trying to suppress her smile. "Testing, 1, 2, 3," she offered.

"Roger. You're both clear. Let's get this show on the road."

"Okay, I think we're ready. Let's go." Alec offered Max his arm, which she took, and they turned the corner to head toward the back entrance to the hotel.

As they approached the door, they saw a very well-groomed man at a podium who seemed to be a bouncer or an usher. He had just let one couple in as Alec and Max made their way to him.

"Invitation?" he asked plainly.

"Crawford," Alec added.

The man checked his list and nodded for them to enter.

Crossing the threshold, Max and Alec strode confidently into the main lobby area, which had been almost completely transformed into a casino floor. Max slid her hand down Alec's arm and laced her fingers through his. It had felt so natural to him that he almost didn't notice.

"I think I'm gonna hit up craps," she announced. "Where you goin'?"

He knew exactly where he was going. "Hold 'Em."

"Let me know if I can help with anything," Biggs voiced. "I'm hacked into their video surveillance, so I can see most of what you see."

Max walked toward the craps table and stood near the middle of it. She seemed disarmingly coy and began placing bets.

Alec traded in a good portion of the cash for chips and joined a Hold 'Em table. It would be a good waste of time, he had decided.

Within the first hand, he had already discovered the other players' tells. On his solos, he used his knowledge of poker and other players' tells to help him win the cash. Now he would use those things to help him lose – and it'd have to be convincing. His strategy would be to win in small increments and lose in a big hand. He had this.

* * *

It was a little over two hours when Max finally lost the rest of the money. She looked around for Alec, but he was nowhere in sight, which kind of worried her because it was nearly mission time and they'd have to get to their location soon.

"Alec, you read me?" she said with some hesitancy. It felt weird to be using walkie-talkie jargon.

"He's over in that sea of Hold 'Em tables," Biggs said. "Just to your right."

"Thanks."

Max maneuvered around the crowds of people, grouped almost in swells at their respective tournaments. She finally found him at the high stakes table, sitting between the Texan with the busty wife and twin brothers who immediately spied Max and blushed.

From her ocular ability to zoom in, she could see a couple of the players' hands, and by her calculations, she could tell Alec would have pocket Kings, probably the spade and heart. There was absolutely zero way for him not to know he would win this hand considering the three upturned cards in the middle of the table.

She watched Alec's face. He used his knuckle to quickly scratch his nose.

_So you made a 'tell', _Max thought, smiling. _Smart._

The dealer then dealt the Turn. Two of the players shifted uncomfortably in their seats, and Max knew they would fold once the betting and raising began. _Amateurs._

Alec made no gestures, but once the two shifty players folded, she could tell he was recalculating. He checked his cards and did something she'd never seen him do: he ran a hand through his hair. _His obvious tell_, she realized. The pro player would know this meant Alec's hand could win but that Alec didn't have the confidence to raise on a bet he might not be able to win. Max knew, however, that he was trying to drive up the stakes and then fold at the last second.

The player across from the dealer raised, and Alec took a calculated breath. It was almost like watching art – figuring out his strategy to lose. Max was surprisingly impressed that it was all working. _Of course it's working, this is Alec._

As she stepped closer to the table, she could hear the twins arguing over which one of them 'the girl in the dress' would find more attractive. This argument had caught Alec's attention, and just as a smile crept up onto her lips, Alec finally saw her in the crowd. He held eye contact with her for seconds longer than would have been normal. He kept his face stoic.

Finally, it was Alec's turn to bet. He called it and waited, pulling his attention from her.

After all bets had been placed, the dealer turned the River and prepared to run through another round of betting, starting with the twins, who called.

He moved to Alec, whose eyes were glued back on Max. She knew he would fold, and began walking closer to the table.

Alec folded and pushed himself out from the table, smiling. The other players turned to see what was making him smile so wide.

"That yer wife?" asked the Texan.

Alec couldn't remove his eyes from her as he stood.

"I guess that's why you don't mind losin'," the Texan said.

"Gotta go, guys," Alec said, walking to meet Max halfway.

"You ready?" Max asked.

"Absolutely." Alec slipped his arm around her waist, leading her away from the table, as the twins remained childishly dumbstruck.

"How's it going? Any sign of Trip?" Biggs asked.

Alec leaned in and mumbled to Biggs through Max's earpiece, "Not yet." To anyone else, it would seem that Alec and Max were talking to one another, or maybe that he was whispering in her ear.

"Don't worry, he'll be on time," Biggs said.

Before either transgenic could make a move toward the elevators, Biggs cut back in. "Oh, shit," he said.

"What?" Alec asked, stepping back from Max.

"Um, you two need to haul ass to the elevators. Fast!"

Alec and Max both looked around, trying to see if whatever was happening was visible, and trying to make it look discreet.

"The Morinos are walking in right through the front door."

"The Family Morinos?" Max asked, trying to peek over her shoulder as Alec pulled her by the arm toward the elevators.

"Who're they?" Alec questioned, feeling as though he'd not been informed the whole situation prior to the mission.

"The Roses owe them money," Max filled in. "A lot of money; they're probably here to collect it."

"They weren't supposed to come tonight," Biggs added.

Alec looked back to Max, unsure of how she knew this information and he didn't, but he had a sneaking suspicion that the person who had informed her was of course the ever-knowledgeable Logan.

Max read his mind. "I asked Logan to do a little digging," she admitted. Mentioning Logan's name now, though, soured her stomach. _What a jerk_.

"You guys want to abort?" Biggs asked.

"No," Alec and Max said in unison.

_Seriously?_ Alec wondered if this was Biggs' first time as the Commanding Officer. Alec would never have given up at the first sign of trouble.

"We got this," Max said, feeling the weight of all those kids' lives on her conscience. She was not going to leave this hotel until she did what she set out to do.

"Then pick it up. They're not that far behind you!"

They began to jog, and as they got closer to the elevators, Alec asked, "Biggsy, where are they? What are we doing?"

"Hiding!" Biggs said.

"What?"

Alec and Max were about to round the corner when Biggs shouted into their ears, "No! Don't go that way!"

"Don't have much of an option, here," Max said.

"Find a place to hide. The Roses are coming from the other direction."

As if right on cue, Max identified a "STAFF ONLY_"_ door and yanked Alec a few feet back. "In here!" she said, letting go of his hand and pulling the door open. She turned to grab him by the lapel and pull him into the room with her. Alec lurched forward, pulled the door closed behind him, and then slammed right into her.

"Shh!"

Alec's body was squeezed between the door and Max. The room was pitch black and they were each trying to adjust to the lack of light.

Alec reached his arms out over Max's head and discovered a tall shelving unit behind her. _Who designed this room?_ With his body against Max's, he couldn't decide if he would yell at them or thank them.

"Good thinking, Max," Biggs complimented.

Max reached up and covered the ear that had the comms device in it, a movement Alec immediately mirrored, and tried to work on calming her breath. Every time she inhaled, she inhaled against Alec's chest and took in his scent.

"Okay, the Roses and Morinos are waiting for the elevator. What's going on in there? I don't have video for the room you're in."

Max and Alec remained silent except for their breathing. They would need to wait until the elevator moved before they could speak.

"Of course, sir, why don't you join us in the Presidential Suite? Our boy will be up shortly to deliver the hour's winnings," came the voice of the eldest Rose.

"That'll be fine, Christopher," said an older man with a rasp to his voice.

The elevator chimed and a series of footsteps boarded the car.

Just to be sure, Alec waited another few seconds and heard the elevator doors close. "They're gone, right?"

"Yeah, but we won't have much time," Max said. She felt the wall behind Alec and found a light switch.

When she flipped it on, she and Alec both noticed that they had been standing in the only part of the room that had a shelf. The other areas of this locker room/maintenance closet were open with a couple of lockers, a bench, and a bathroom located through a short corridor.

Alec cleared his throat and moved out of the shelf aisle and into the main part of the room. "Sorry," he said.

Max turned toward him her eyes lit up. "Come on!"

She led him out of the room and pressed the up arrow button between the two elevator shafts. The elevator on the right was ascending past the eleventh and toward the twelfth floor. The elevator on the left was descending from floor eight down.

It reached the lobby in seconds, and as they climbed in, Alec immediately cased the elevator for the escape route. As usual, there was a panel in the ceiling that they could both climb through which would leave them in the right position to surprise the armed guard.

Max pushed the button with the 'close doors' icon on it and just as they closed, she turned to Alec. "You go first," she ordered. "Don't want you looking up my dress!"

Biggs laughed into their ears. Alec looked playfully offended. "Me? Never!"

Alec popped open the panel and effortlessly pulled himself onto the elevator's boxy top. He reached down and pulled Max through the hole with ease. They both squatted, each holding on to a small link in the chain, and Alec slid the panel back over the opening with barely enough room to see into the car.

A moment later, the elevator chimed again, and two figures entered the car.

The bigger one was the armed guard, who looked like a beefy rent-a-cop from a 1920s noir film, with classic, broad shoulders, and dark hair stuffed under a hat. The smaller one had to be Trip, Max realized. He had shaggy red hair and freckles on his arms, but he was no kid. He was maybe fifteen, and looked like he could probably handle himself in a fight if he needed to. _So why is he hanging around this dump? _she wondered.

Alec motioned to her to wait a moment while the doors closed and they began moving.

Trip hit the '12' button and kept his head down. He moved to the side of the car.

Max lifted the panel soundlessly, but the car jerked upward as it began moving, which caused her to drop the panel in an effort to keep her balance. _Stupid heels._

The guard heard the noise and looked up, just as Alec's foot crossed the vertical distance and slammed into his face. The guard fell to the floor, unconscious, as Alec lowered himself into the car.

Trip's eyes lit up at seeing his old CO. "494!" he exclaimed. He immediately stood at attention.

"Hey, it's Alec now," he said, reaching up with both hands for Max. She dropped her legs into the hole and swung into the car from the opening. Alec took her by the waist and set her down gently.

Max turned to face the red-haired kid. "Hey! I'm Max."

Trip's face reddened as Max extended her hand. He hesitantly shook it. "Trip," he said.

"Nice to meet you, Trip," Max said, smiling.

"Now where are the other kids?" Alec asked. "We gotta get the hell out of here!"


	10. Getting Caught

Trip hit the emergency stop button and the car jerked to a stop. A light buzz filled the air and the indicator light lit up at the fifth floor. Trip turned to Max. "You're hot," he said.

Max laughed and looked to Alec as if to suggest Trip had learned this behavior from his superior. Alec lifted his hands in defense.

Max looked back to Trip. "Yeah, well that's how they made me."

Trip's eyes widened again as he put the information together in his head. His eyes showed a spark of recognition as he blurted out, "You're 452!"

Her smile faded as she checked with Alec and returned to Trip again. "What, you've heard of me?"

Alec tried to shake his head 'no' at Trip, but it was no use. Trip wasn't looking.

"Sure, we've all heard of you. You're Manticore's Most Wanted. You're legendary."

Alec knew Trip meant it in a you've-defied-all-odds-and-you're-pretty-so-you're-a-hero kind of way, but he also knew that's not how Max would take it. One look in her direction confirmed it, hurt spreading across her face.

She hadn't expected Trip's answer. She had hoped to be known as one of the X5s who'd broken out, bested White and the Familiars, saved at least one transgenic life, or burned down Manticore and set everyone free – but she never thought she would be on a most wanted list like some common criminal. And she really never thought the younger X5s would be in on it.

"Bad move," Biggs said into their comms. "Sorry, Max."

Trip noticed the look on her face. "You didn't know?"

"Stop talking," Alec said, hopeful that Trip not make this any worse than it already was.

"Yes, sir," Trip said. He returned his gaze to Max and continued anyway. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I thought you knew."

"I said stop talking," Alec reminded. "That's an order."

"What is this about?" Max asked Alec.

He didn't want to tell this story, but he couldn't deny Max the truth. She deserved that much. "Before your recapture, Renfro had everyone looking for you. There was one lieutenant who instructed his command to shoot-to-kill."

He really hated admitting all this. He had hoped she would never find out, particularly because of the look he knew she'd get (and she did get it).

"I'm sorry, Max, I just figured-"

"No big deal," she interrupted, seeming to steel herself with pointed resolve. She didn't have time to think about it anyway.

Alec rolled his eyes in disappointment and pleaded that she not hold him accountable for Renfro's decision.

Max pushed the button to resume their upward mobility.

"Wait a second," Alec said. He lunged forward and pushed the emergency stop again.

Trip and Max both regarded him with incredulous looks. The car came to a stop again.

"Really, Alec, I'm fine," Max said.

"What are we going to do with the guard?" he asked, motioning to the unconscious muscle at their feet.

Neither transgenic had an answer for him.

Biggs cut back in. "Hey guys, why not drop him off on twelve? You'll have to hurry, but at least while you're at a stop, they won't be able to get to you as quickly."

"Not bad," Alec said. He then remembered Trip couldn't hear Biggs. "He said we should drop him on twelve."

"Yeah, we'll double back and get everyone else without them being close enough to nab us." Trip, feeling strong after getting a plan, pushed the button to resume.

For the few floors' time it took to get up to twelve, the three genetically-created soldiers assumed fighting stances, ready to meet a hallway full of resistance, but when the doors slid open, the only thing waiting for them was emptiness: boring burgundy carpet with swirly wall sconces and cream-colored '90s wallpaper.

Alec and Trip made quick work of dragging the guard into the hallway and returned to the car. Trip pushed the button to descend to six.

"Okay, so where are these other kids?" Max asked.

"I'll take you there," Trip answered. "It's a secret spot I found after I got here."

The air in the cab hung thick, and in what seemed to Max like seconds, but to Alec like minutes, they rode down a few floors. Just before the sixth floor, Trip hit the emergency stop one more time. He dropped the satchel containing the hour's winnings and, with just his fingertips, pried open the elevator doors to reveal a metal passageway between floors, approximately six feet high.

Trip turned back to Alec. "This way." He sat at the elevator floor with his feet dangling into the opening. He'd have to swing through the opening and land in the passageway, which would be no problem for him at nearly five foot eight, and Max would probably be fine walking around down there; Alec, though, would need to duck a little just to walk through the corridor.

Trip swung down into the empty corridor and turned to face Max and Alec. "Toss me the money," he said.

Alec dropped the satchel into Trip's waiting, freckled hands and sat with his legs dangling over the elevator floor. He swung down into the corridor, landed, and stood up, only to bang his head on the ceiling. He hunched and raised a hand to rub the now sore spot.

Max laughed at his misfortune and prepared to swing down into the corridor herself.

Alec, now wary of the ceiling height, turned to offer Max some help down. Help she denied.

Of course she was pissed at him for not telling her about all this shoot-to-kill business. They'd been out of Manticore for over a year and she was fairly certain he already knew her biggest secrets – Logan, Ben, everything. Hell, Renfro had seen fit to send Alec to finish them both off after she had inadvertently infected Logan with the virus. She had, against her better judgment, trusted him again and again, and was continually let down. First it was the virus money, and then the scientist's papers with all of her work. Not to mention he'd tried to kill her once or twice. The whole thing just seemed so messed up. She set it aside in her mind – nothing she could do about it now. Besides, they had a mission to complete.

Max sat at the elevator floor and swung down into the corridor just as the guys had done, except her heels slammed into the metal, which created a loud noise and shot some seriously painful vibrations up through her legs.

It had felt similar to when her unit was training with firearms in the forest and Zack had shot her gun. The vibrations from the bullet seemed to burrow into her bones, and she had to drop the weapon. It had left her with an intense need to try to rub the vibrations out of her hand.

Immediately, she doubled over and tried not to cry out in pain or give any indication that she had done something so stupid.

"You alright?" Alec asked.

Trip turned to see what all the commotion was about.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said through gritted teeth.

"Come on, this way," Trip urged.

"So who else is down here?" Alec asked, following behind Trip. "Anyone else from our unit?"

Trip looked straight ahead. "Yeah, Leo is here, and Scar." At the end of the corridor, Trip turned right. "I've been sneaking food to Scar for a couple of weeks now."

"What about the Roses? They don't know about this place?" Max asked, doing her best to walk quietly on her tiptoes.

Trip shrugged. "I guess not. They only care that the power works and the guests are kept happy."

"And they don't notice when most of their child slave force goes missing?"

"They're not always missing," Trip said with a twinge of sadness. "Sometimes they run away. Sometimes they get traded or killed. It's kind of a high turnover."

Max thought about all the kids out there, feeling helpless to the world, being taken advantage of by the more powerful or more knowledgeable. It made her sick.

"Wait, why've you been bringing food to Scar for weeks?" Alec interrupted.

"Haven't been bringing it myself," Trip said, making a left turn into another hallway. "I'm watched a little more closely. I'm on probation."

"What happened?" Alec grabbed Trip's arm and stopped them all for a minute.

Trip sighed. "They had this client," he said, using finger quotes, "who liked to smack Scar around a little. Well, I just happened to be outside this guy's room and I heard her crying, so I used my keycard to break in and stop him."

Alec was surprised. "And you got caught."

"Yeah, the douche tattled that I broke his fingers, so they broke mine." Trip held up his hand. It carried some fading scars, scars which suggested they had done more than just broken his fingers. Maybe cut them up first or pulled at the nails or something.

_Kind of drastic,_ thought Max. Being a Manticore experiment made them less surprised and more prepared when it came to torture and punishment, and looking at his hands now proved one of the benefits of being test-tube born, as it was almost completely healed.

Max looked over to Alec. He seemed proud of his red-headed protégé.

"So what did they do to Scar?" Max asked, dreading the answer. She figured it had to be something if she'd been hiding for weeks in this metal maze of a passageway.

"Nothing she couldn't heal from," Trip answered vaguely, refusing to look into her eyes as he said it.

The corridor ended abruptly, and before them stood a crowd of children ranging from about eight years to Trip's age. One red-headed girl about a year younger than Trip stepped through the crowd and threw her arms around him. He seemed surprised that she would do this before discovering the identities of the two people who stood with him.

Once she saw Alec, she backed off of Trip and stood at attention. "Sir," she said, her face quickly flushing with the red of embarrassment.

"Hey, Scarlet," he said. "It's Alec now." He motioned to Max. "This is Max."

Max stepped forward and extended her hand almost emotionlessly, a hand which Scarlet shook hesitantly. She seemed to be realizing what Trip had realized minutes ago in the elevator.

"You're-" she started.

This time, Trip shook his head, trying to catch her attention, and this time, Scarlet saw him and stopped short.

"I know, I'm a monster or a criminal or whatever," Max finished, releasing Scarlet's hand.

"You're making this a habit?" Scarlet asked with a slight air of disappointment.

Max wasn't sure how to take this question. Was she being chastised for the way she was feeling? Or perhaps she was being chastised for saving lives despite the price on her head? She felt that walking around with a bounty targeted on her body warranted a little time to get used to the knowledge before she dropped the partial cold-front.

"I mean saving us," Scarlet added. "Thanks."

It was quiet in the corridor for a moment. The corners of Max's mouth curved up in the smallest suggestion of a smile. Scarlet knew who Max was, and knew Max as a savior and not a murderer. Her 'Thanks' had filled Max with the smallest seedling of hope.

"Okay guys, get a move on," Biggs ordered from within Max's and Alec's earpieces.

"Time to go," Alec said.

Trip turned to the others. "All right, fall in!" he shouted, and the children formed two straight lines. "This is our only shot out of here. We have to be as stealth as possible – because what do you think they'll do to us if they catch us?" He let the question hang for a moment to give them time to process the answer. "So pair up. Right now."

The kids all looked around and some switched positions to stand next to their partner.

Scarlet paired up with a smaller kid and gave him a reassuring look. She held his hand gently but firmly.

"Until we're out of here, you are now each responsible for your partner."

Alec watched Max's face as she witnessed Scarlet's gesture. He knew this is exactly what Max would have done if she had been in charge of a group of minors. It was what she had already done with Bullet and Bugler and hat group of misfit soldiers after Manticore had burned down. She reminded them that though they might not be related, they could still be a family, and there were things out there in the world that they would fight to keep. He smiled to himself just as Max caught him staring.

She had spent the better part of a year feeling responsible for all of them – all of the units and creatures and soldiers she had freed, which meant she had spent the better part of the year not realizing the pull she seemed to have over them. They naturally gravitated toward her. She had been out in the world for half their lives, and she had a pretty good idea of how to reconcile their childhoods with this outside world. She was an example. Alec looked down at the metal flooring and caught a blur of her face in some of the reflected light. The blur looked like it was watching his face.

Maybe Max knew deep down why Alec didn't tell her about Refro's orders. The virus paper incident with Joshua occurred right around the time that they had really started to become friends. And he hadn't let her down since. Not with anything that really mattered.

"And you know how pissed I'll be if someone goes missing on your watch," Trip continued, sparing no seriousness. He finally turned back to Alec and said, "We're ready."

"Uh, guys?" Biggs asked, his voice filled with some urgency. Alec and Max could hear him typing on the other end. "Might want to get the hell out of there! Your guard's awake."

"Biggsy says our little catnapper is awake," said Alec. He addressed the group. "We're going back to the elevators, hitting up another floor, and all of you will climb down the east wing's fire escape. Biggsy's got a bus waiting down there."

"Where are we going?" asked the small child paired with Scarlet.

"Not sure, but we gotta go now," Max answered.

They moved quickly and silently to the elevator, where Max pulled herself up into the car and turned to help the kids up, one by one.

Alec and Trip lifted kid after kid until it was only the two of them left. Alec boosted Trip up, even though he didn't need the help, and began to pull himself up as well. Max knelt down and grabbed his forearm to help him up.

Once everyone was in, Alec hit the button to resume and the car jerked back into motion. It was only a few seconds' ride down.

"What floor?" Alec asked Trip.

"We're at six," Max said as the doors opened to a couple of patrons who seemed to be checking out, judging by the leopard-print luggage, which was strewn about their feet haphazardly. There wouldn't be enough room for them and their luggage.

"Sorry, we're full," Alec said, pushing the 'Close Doors' command. The couple looked miffed.

Trip hit the number seven. "My lucky number." He grabbed Scarlet's hand and gave it a squeeze.

The group filed into the hall as soon as the elevator doors opened, and moved toward the east wing. Max hit the emergency stop on her way out and jogged to catch up to the group.

They reached the fire escape without incident. Alec jerked the window open. "Biggs is just at the bottom of these stairs waiting for you."

"Hurry," Max said, looking behind them to see if anyone had followed or found them.

Some of the bigger kids climbed out first, just to show the younger ones the path down.

"They're on the move," Alec said.

"Yeah, I see them," Biggs answered. "Flown the coop."

Max observed, as the kids climbed out, that some of them had barcodes, and some didn't. It really sucked that some of them weren't Manticore – because at least the ones with barcodes were sort of prepared to be hunted and had some form of training. The thought of it all made her angry – for how much she hated Lydecker for everything he put them through as children, he kind of had a point about preparing them for this life. And that made her mad.

They continued helping the kids through the jamb until fifteen of them had climbed out and only Trip, Scarlet, Alec and Max were left on the floor.

Trip held his hand out for Scarlet and she stepped one leg out onto the fire escape. Just as she swung her other leg out, Biggs asked, "How many more are there?"

"Two," Alec said. "Trip and Scarlet. She's on her way down."

Scarlet smiled sweetly at Trip. "See you in a sec," she said.

Biggs was quiet for a second. Then, in a hurried and panicked transmission, said, "You need to get out of there now!"

Alec turned to Trip. "You gotta go now!"

"No, there's no time. Take Trip with you," Biggs said.

Max yelled to Scarlet. "We'll see you at the rendezvous point!"

Backing up out of the window, she pushed it shut and turned back to Alec and Trip.

"What's going on?" Trip asked, not having heard any of Biggs' communications.

"The Morinos are heading up to the roof," Biggs informed.

"You got a new exit strategy?" Max asked.

"I can stick around and find an extraction point," Biggs said.

"No," Alec and Max said simultaneously.

Max continued. "You gotta get those kids as far away as possible. We'll figure it out. I got an idea."

"We'll see you at the rendezvous point," Alec added, not knowing Max's idea, but completely confident in her.

"Come on!" Max said, leading them back through the corridor and past the elevators. She was heading toward the west wing's fire escape.

"FYI, Max, they're stopping on your floor," Biggs added in.

"Why?"

"I'm not sure."

Alec and Max heard some typing.

"Biggs, you can't risk those kids' lives for us. You gotta go!"

"But you guys –"

"She's right," Alec said, "and you know it. We'll bring Trip back."

There was a silence for a moment before Biggs cut back in. "Clear."

Alec and Max looked to one another as they came to the west wing fire escape.

"We'll climb down from here instead," she said to Trip while Alec muscled the window open.

Max had one leg over the jamb when they were interrupted by the two members of the Morino family. "I don't think so," said the elder Morino.

Both Morinos pointed guns at them and kept a strict eye on Trip, who still held the satchel full of money.

_Shit,_ thought Alec and Max simultaneously.


	11. Getting Tripped Up

Alec knew that, even with their superior speed and agility, they wouldn't be able to escape without getting shot. Not all three of them. He just hoped he didn't have to improvise in response to Max's improvisation, because he didn't feel he was as good at it as she was and could potentially get them all killed. And he really didn't want to get them all killed. And he really didn't want to get shot. Again.

"Aren't you the Roses' boy?" the elder Morino asked. His voice was raspy like an old time blues singer, but less velvety. It maybe came from years upon years of smoking. His yellowed teeth definitely supported the idea. His hair was receding, but his suit was not fitted like many of the new, modern suits had been. This guy had been around since long before the Pulse. They could take him. And if the three of them didn't feel like they could take him and get out of it together, they could run. His reaction time wouldn't be as quick as theirs.

Trip searched Alec's face for some indication of what to do. Max pulled her leg back in and stood up with her hands in the air.

"Those kids think they can pull one over on us," the elder Morino said. "Sent their boy to collect our dough and then disappear before we knew any better."

"No, sir, that's –" Trip tried to interject.

The younger Morino waved down, indicating Trip should be quiet. "You're coming with us," he said. His voice was smooth, as if he hadn't lived a hard day in his life. That kind of life was one of luxury, of a lack of hard times. He didn't have the yellowed teeth of his accomplice. His full head of hair pointed more toward shampoo commercial than The Life. The Morinos must be very well connected, if the elder, patriarchal man was any indication.

With their guns, they gestured for the three soldiers to move toward the elevators. Once inside, the tall, smooth-voiced man hit the button for the top floor. Max and Alec shared a worried glance which seemed to hold some desperate question; it was as if they were asking one another if they had any bright ideas.

Max figured they would wait to make their move until they could route their escape, and that most likely meant they'd need to make a break for it sometime soon.

Within moments, they all stepped off the elevator and headed to the stairwell marked 'ROOF ACCESS'.

"Go on," the younger Morino said, pushing the barrel of his gun into Alec's back.

"Hey, no need to get proddy," Alec said. If this guy had an itchy trigger finger, he could accidentally put a bullet in Alec's spine. No one wanted that. Of all people, he really didn't want to lose the use of his lower extremities.

They climbed up the first half of the flight of stairs, and when turning at the stair landing, Max caught Alec's eyes. In them, she saw a plan forming, and was impressed. So far, she had only thought of two possible scenarios. One: she could disarm the older Morino in front of her, or Alec could disarm the younger Morino behind him, or they could attempt it simultaneously. The problem with this scenario is that it left Trip unprotected. Not that he wasn't old enough to take care of himself or protect himself, but it wasn't a smart play. If anything went wrong, one of them would get shot, and she really didn't want Trip to get caught up in something like that. Not if she and Alec could do anything to prevent it. And she didn't want Alec to get shot. Again. And she didn't want to get herself shot either. Again. The Roses would come looking for Trip, anyway, if they didn't all make it to the roof.

Or the second scenario: wait until they got to the roof and try to stash Trip behind something concrete before she or Alec figured a way down to the west exit, at the bottom of which would sit their SUV, waiting to let them speed off into the safety of the hazy horizon. The problem with this scenario was that she had no idea what the roof had in store for them. It could have an army of more brainwashed transgenics, or another band of White-esque familiars, or the Denver PD.

But Alec's eyes held that hint of a dangerous plan. She wondered what it was.

Trip, Alec, and the other Morino turned on the landing and the party of five continued up the last half of the stairs, spilling out onto the roof.

There was a definite chill in the crisp night air, like the sky was moments away from opening up a ceiling of feathery snow. Max's breath came out in plumes, rising up toward the stars. Though he knew she wouldn't accept it, he began to take his coat off with the intention of offering it to her.

"Hey, no funny business," the younger Morino said, jabbing Alec in the back. "Hands up," he ordered. Alec followed the order, not yet ready to make any moves.

The view from the top of The Lux would have been remarkable under very different and possibly very romantic circumstances, Alec noted. The beauty of a slightly wealthier city, which could afford numerous hotels and skyscraper businesses, and could afford to keep the lights on in them, would call attention to the sea of blinking lights in front of any onlookers. It would be the dark and architectural version of sunset on water. Or at least, that's what he imagined.

At the rooftop, there was a helipad with less than an inch of snow covering it, at which stood who Max assumed to be Christopher and Edward Rose. Expectantly, they stood at ease with their hands folded in front of them. A couple of muscled bodyguards stood to the side, and the pilot and two other bodyguards waited aboard the chopper. All of them were strapped.

_And none of us are, _Alec observed.

The small group made their way toward the helicopter, the younger Morino angrily pushing Trip between the groups by his neck. This move left Max and Alec between Trip and the two Morinos.

"Thought you could steal from us, did you?" the raspy-voiced mobster asked.

Alec closed his eyes. He did not like the odds created by Trip being put between the two armed groups of mobsters. He needed to change up his plan immediately.

The blonde Rose spoke first. "I think you must have that information backwards, Reynaldo. I think it is you and your nephew who think you can keep shaking us down."

The brunette Rose added, "Which is not the case. Not any longer." His frame tensed.

Reynaldo, the elder Morino, shook his head, laughing, and looked over to his nephew. "Can you believe this, Marco? These kids think they can control the families." He turned back to the Roses and continued. "You have no idea the fire power you're playing with, here."

Marco only mirrored his uncle's movements and laughter. Though armed, he clearly didn't understand what he was doing, and from where she was standing, Max could see that he hadn't clicked off his safety.

"Chris, who's the other two?" asked the brunette brother, eying Alec and Max.

Christopher shook his head. "I don't know who they are. Yours?" He glanced toward the Morinos, who did not find this amusing.

"We caught them with the kid trying to escape out the window. Very clever of you two, but not clever enough." Reynaldo used the barrel of his gun to flick Max and Alec's presence away, as if they were swarming flies.

"Eddie, are they employees?" Christopher asked.

"No, they don't work here," Edward said.

Max and Alec looked at one another nervously. They both knew that what was coming was something along the lines of '_Well, now they've seen our faces'…_

"Well what are we gonna do with them?" Edward asked.

Max shifted, little goose bumps forming on her bare legs and arms. She needed to figure out a way to get Alec's attention so she could clue him in on Marco's ineptitude with the safety mechanism. Currently, Alec's stare was fixed on Trip, who stood shaking between the groups like some kind of sacrificial lamb.

"We'll have to take them all with us," Christopher said.

"But we don't have enough room in the chopper."

"Well, then we'll have to make some tough decisions," the older brother added.

Edward unfolded his hands and waved for Trip to approach them with the satchel. "Come on over here, Red," he said.

"Don't make a move, kid," said Reynaldo, he and Marco raising their weapons at Trip between Max and Alec.

Trip turned to look at Alec, unsure of what to do. He hoped his former CO had a plan, because he had a really bad feeling about this.

Alec's eyes burned with concern. It looked like Trip was screwed. He tried to come up with a plan. Suddenly, he heard a sneeze and turned to look at Max.

She had covered her mouth and then returned her hands to her freezing forearms, where she used her right index and middle finger to tap out "SAFETY" on her left arm in Morse code. She let her eyes dart to Marco, who was standing closer to Alec.

Alec realized this was her plan. She could take the elder Morino and Alec could disarm Marco, and as long as Trip could dive out of the way, it would all work out. This was the first step. They just needed to figure out how to get Trip out of the line of fire. If they couldn't think of anything, she'd have to test her speed. She was prepared. She was confident she could beat them.

"Come on, kid, we ain't got all night," started Marco. "Why don't you go ahead and toss us the bag, and then you can go back with your bosses and we can wrap this up for the night. What do you say?" He looked to his uncle to be sure he was saying the right thing. Reynaldo gave him an affirmative head nod.

"And then you show up in two weeks and keep shaking us," Christopher said, swinging his head in the negative. "No, I don't think so, old man. Maybe it's time for you and yours to adapt to the times."

Trip saw Alec's eyes shift toward the bag. "Remember Algeria?" he asked.

Trip nodded and turned back to the Roses.

Max wondered what they had done in Algeria. Trip was maybe only fifteen. Could Manticore have really sent him and Alec together on a mission? And if so, what for? Surely not an assassination…? And she wondered, because she didn't know about their shared history, whether or not her lack of knowledge of the Algeria mission would have negative results. Ultimately, it didn't matter. She was ready. Her blood raced through her veins, making those goose bumps disappear as her core temperature rose with the anticipation.

Both Roses pulled their weapons, and the blonde one said, "Red, come on over here and hand Eddie the bag."

As if perched on the edge of the diving board, waiting for the perfect moment, Alec closed his eyes and visualized how the scene would play out. In that millisecond, he could hear the Roses' weapons being cocked, and could hear the two mobsters behind him shift their stances in preparation.

"Now!" Alec yelled.

With all of his might, Trip flung the bag up into the air, and then blurred to squat behind one of the rooftop fixtures. As the leather satchel sailed up into the night sky, the Roses and Morinos looked up to watch its projection.

Alec turned and ducked under Marco's line of sight. He brought his left fist up under Marco's elbow, and hearing the satisfying crack, effectively disarmed him. The gun fell out of his grasp and Alec caught it and rammed his elbow into Marco's nose, breaking it and knocking him out.

Max dropped to her hands and kicked out at Reynaldo with both feet. Her heels caught him in the shin and thigh, respectively, and he cried out in pain. Instinctively, his hands raced to the injuries to investigate the damage, which caused him to drop his gun. Back on her feet and squatting, Max kicked the gun out of his reach in a sweeping motion. As Reynaldo rubbed at his shins, he tried to scoot behind Max, knowing that he would be the Roses' next target if they could see him. But Max was too quick in joining Trip behind the fixture, and one of the Roses' bodyguards leveled his aim at the elder Morino and pulled the trigger, hitting his target just under his collarbone. The old man lay back, bleeding. Soon, he would lose consciousness, and if unattended, would bleed out.

It all happened too quickly. Alec picked up the gun Max had kicked in his direction, clicked off the safety on Marco's gun, and held both pieces up at the brothers. At that moment, the leather satchel landed next to the bleeding Morino, between Alec and Reynaldo.

"We don't want to kill you!" called Edward.

"But we will, if we don't get our money," added Christopher, not backing down.

Alec stared at them, unmoving. He stood still as a statue, a very light snow beginning to drift down.

From behind the fixture, Max watched Alec and the Roses intently, trying to make sure Alec didn't get his ass shot up, again, by unforeseen threats. The two bodyguards on the helipad, the two brothers, and the two on-board bodyguards all had their weapons pointed at Alec. Surely, they assumed they outnumbered him.

But Max felt a shift at her side. Trip's eyes were fixed on the satchel of money.

"No," Max said. "Leave it." She didn't want to have to tell him they had more important things at stake, here. Like diverting the Roses' attention so Alec could get the hell out of there.

"I can get closer and grab it before they even notice," he said hopefully.

"No, Trip. Why? Money's not hard to come by. Let it go. You don't need it. And we need to focus on figuring out how we're all going to get out of here."

Trip tried to suppress his frown. Out here in the real world, he didn't have to take orders anymore. Besides, he could grab the money and then he and Scar could go anywhere. He could grab the money and everything would be fine. Then Alec would be able to get out of their grasp and the three of them could go have a burger somewhere and this would all be a memory they'd joke about in the future.

"No, it's too dangerous," Max pushed, watching his emotions play across his face. "Don't! You'll get shot! It's not worth it!"

Trip nodded, and Max could tell how upset he was, but that he agreed she was right. She couldn't fathom why Trip would be willing to risk his life for a hundred grand. But then it dawned on her. It was because someone else needed it more than him. Someone about which he deeply cared.

Trip returned his stare to Alec and the Roses, dejected.

But when Max also peered around the opposite corner of the fixture, she heard small footsteps blurring toward Reynaldo. She snapped her head toward the noise and saw Trip kneeling over him, reaching for the pack. He grabbed it successfully, and swung it over his shoulder.

Max jumped up from behind the fixture, her breath caught in her throat. Realizing the odds were not in her favor, she ducked and peeked around the other corner. "Alec!" she shouted.

Trip shot a quick glance to Alec, who by this point, had already watched the Roses and their bodyguards' gazes shift to his left. By the time he looked, it was too late. Gunfire rang out staccato as dozens of bullets riddled the young boy's small frame, staining his short sleeve shirt with O positive, universal donor blood.

"No!" Alec shouted in disbelief. He turned back to the Roses and bodyguards, and leveled the guns at them. He screamed out through gritted teeth and squeezed a shot out of both guns, but only one of them hit its target, sending Eddie down to the ground with a bleeding neck.

Christopher and the bodyguards knelt down to check the wound, inadvertently giving Alec a few seconds to dive and crouch behind the fixture. Eddie attempted to speak, but the gurgle noises which escaped him were torn between his ripped throat and blood-spattered mouth, and he bled out within the minute.

"You son of a bitch!" shouted Christopher, raising his weapon back in the direction of the transgenic twosome. "He's my brother!"

Max didn't dare lay a hand on Alec. His veins were protruding, his face was red with anger and pressure, and he kept swallowing and refusing to look at her. His whole body was flexed. All signs that she should back off. "He was just a kid!" Alec shouted back.

The Roses and their bodyguards walked toward Reynaldo, guns drawn in the direction of the roof fixture.

_Unbelievable_, Max thought. _They're coming for the money_.

"That's what you get when you play with Roses!" Christopher shouted back. "You get stuck by thorns."

_Seriously?_ thought Max. But the idea was not lost on her that they might be completely, entirely, and unequivocally screwed. She waited for Alec to look at her. If they were going to die, she wanted his eyes on her.

Suddenly, the two soldiers both heard multiple sets of boot steps heading up the last flight of stairs. Alec snapped his head toward hers. "Company," he said. They cased the rooftop for the best place to jump ship. A few yards from the chopper wrapped the tell-tale bars which lead to the fire escape ladder. West side, like they needed.

Max looked back to Alec. He saw the urgency in her eyes, and looked over to Trip. Even though he knew they'd been soldiers and were designed to fight and die on the field, he just couldn't stomach the idea of it happening to Trip. It was unjust. The smaller body on the rooftop drew no breath. He just wanted Trip to breathe. He willed it to breathe. He willed it to breathe, but it was not enough.

"It's too late," Max said, remembering Tinga in the cage, blue as the water in which she was encased.

The door to the roof access burst open, revealing eight more men of varying ages, dressed in the same bluesy suits as the Morinos. They were reinforcements, sent up probably the moment Reynaldo was shot. Each of them was armed, and now it all seemed like a fairer fight.

Gunfire erupted between them, lighting up the rooftop in muzzle flashes. One of the suited Morinos stopped at his former boss and picked the satchel up by the shoulder strap. He tried to shake it from Trip's dead form.

Max shook her head. "We don't go now, we're gonna get shot."

Alec snapped out of his anger and pushed Max toward the exit. "Right behind you!" he shouted, which made the pain she felt from running in heels totally unimportant. She ran on her tip toes as fast as she could and all but hopped over the railing. Alec was not going to get shot because she was too slow.

And he was right behind her, sliding one gun into the back of his trousers and tossing the other to the rooftop. He nearly jumped onto the first rung of the ladder.

Neither knew if they were being followed or shot at, but both acted as though they were. With the recent snow, the bars were cold and slick with melting flakes, which made it both painful and easy to slide down them with greater speed. Their rings grinded against the metal ladder, vibrating the bones in their left hands.

Only two floors down from the roof and suddenly, the gunfire ceased and the helicopter started up. Alec looked down to Max. His lack of movement caused her to pause and look up to him.

She already knew what he was going to say. "Right behind you," she said, starting to climb back up.

As they cleared the eleventh floor, the helicopter lifted off, swaying to the west and shooting an icy breeze downward. Max tried to look up to see who was in it – the Roses or the Morinos – but all she could see was the metal bottom of the chopper.

Once he reached the roof and was confident all the bodies weren't moving, Alec turned to help Max up. He slid his jacket off and held it open for her.

"No, that's okay – "

"Take the damn jacket, Max, you're gonna get pneumonia."

Max let him pull the jacket over her shoulders and they turned to face the carnage. A dozen bodies lay strewn about in various positions, none of which seemed natural.

Alec immediately untied his bowtie and removed his cummerbund, tossing it aside. He hurried to Trip's side and knelt between the young redhead and Reynaldo.

He pulled at Trip's limbs to help lay him flat, bloodying his hands and once-pristine white dress shirt in the process. There was so much blood.

He'd seen blood before – even this much, but it had never been on someone he cared about. It had never been on anyone under his command. Alec folded his sleeves halfway up his forearms and pushed the kid's hair out of his eyes. He wiped his fingertips on his trousers and hesitated over Trip's bright green eyes, frozen in surprise.

Pushing his lids shut, Alec realized there were things those eyes would never see.

Alec shut his eyes and a low grumble started firmly in his stomach and made its way up. By the time it rumbled to his mouth, it was a guttural yell. He let it out – just the one – up into the snow.

Max stood behind him, paralyzed to move. This was one she felt deep in her core. She'd lost one of her own before. More than one. She shut her eyes against the forming tears and wished she could take it away for him.

Then they both heard it. The click of the safety. They looked for the source, and discovered the barrel of the one gun left behind, which was pointed at Alec, was held rather shakily by Marco.

He was disheveled. His right elbow was most likely broken from the impact of Alec's fist, and he seemed to be confined to the ground.

Alec regarded the man with uncertainty. He moved his hands into the air. "We were just saying goodbye," he said lowly. He turned to face the man, exposing his back to Max.

In her peripheral, she saw the gun resting at his waist, but kept her eyes on Marco and raised her hands into the air.

"You broke my nose," Marco said, as if his nose was the only thing he realized was broken. Or maybe the only thing that mattered. He floated the gun laterally and lined it up with Max. "And you – you bitch! You killed my uncle."

Max thought she might be able to dodge the bullet, especially since she was about ninety-percent certain it would be his first time possibly shooting at a living target and would have trouble both holding the gun steady and adjusting for the recoil.

But Alec stepped in front of her. "No, she didn't kill him. The Roses' bodyguard shot him." Alec's eyes sifted through the faces of the deceased scattered around them, and then used his head to nod to Marco's right. "That guy."

If Alec succeeded in getting Marco to look away, even for a second, Max knew that would be her opening to lift the piece and shoot the man.

And it had worked. The very moment he averted his eyes, Max grabbed the gun from Alec's slacks, squatted, and aimed for the younger Morino's thigh. She squeezed the trigger and the shot rang out. In a moment, a blood blossom seeped through the man's pant leg.

He screamed out in pain and dropped the gun to clutch his thigh with his one functional arm and hand. Alec turned to Max, took the gun from her, and leveled it back to Marco's head.

Max stood up. "Alec, don't."

His brows were turned down, and from the way his jaw flexed in the moonlight, Max could tell he was grinding his teeth. "It was Trip!" He seemed to be justifying.

Max tried again. "You can't do this, Alec," she pleaded, trying to look in his eyes.

"Bullshit I can't!" he said, unmoving.

_Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? _thought Max. She stepped in front of Alec, blocking the man. "Please don't," she started. "Please. The guy who killed Trip is already dead." She pointed. "He's right over there."

Alec didn't break his stare. Marco didn't seem to be picking up his gun, either. He was preoccupied with the pain in his leg and the fear for his life. He'd probably live if he called for help.

"If you don't want to see," Alec started, cold-blooded, "turn away."

Max felt a few tears creep up into her eyes.

"Turn away, Max," he said. "That's an order."

"No." Max cut him off when he tried to step around her. "You don't have to be the thing you were designed to be," she said, a tear slipping down her face.

She finally understood. He thought he had no choice. He thought he was in survival mode, that he wasn't worth the time and effort of the people around him, the people he loved. He thought he was a failure, and he thought he was alone. He thought he had no one.

Max stepped past the barrel of the gun and into his personal space. She reached her hands up to his face and motioned for him to look her in the eyes.

And when he finally broke his stare to peer into her coffee-colored eyes, she saw him. Saw beyond that disaffected exterior he always wore, that mask Manticore had trained them all to wear when times got too tough.

"You don't have to be what they designed you to be. You're not – you're better than that, Alec."

Alec searched her eyes for the truth behind her words. All of it seemed to hinge on the last word of her sentence – his name. He wasn't just a number, a killing machine. Not to her. He wasn't sure what he was to her, but he was sure those were real tears on her cheeks.

Alec lowered the gun and bit back those bitchy little tears that tried so desperately to form on the surface of his eyes.

Boots on the stairs interrupted them for the second time.

Alec dropped the gun and pulled her hands from his face a little faster than he liked, and held them still between his as he looked to his fallen comrade. He said a silent goodbye, and then he led Max back toward the west side of the rooftop. He led her to their escape.


	12. Getting Back on the Road

Alec sped away from The Lux, trying to get them the hell out of there before Denver PD showed up and caught him with a gun in his hand. They had already reached the bottom floor when another helicopter landed and more gunfire sounded.

They guessed the remaining Rose brothers wanted to keep The Lux operational, and had shown up to take back their hotel.

It was well after two in the morning. Max and Alec had been sitting in the SUV wordlessly driving to the rendezvous point for two hours before one of them finally spoke.

"What city is it again?"

"Santa Cruz," Alec answered.

Either they had reached the awkward silence following an extremely personal and important vulnerable event, or they had reached a comfortable silence which came with shared trauma. If either transgenic knew, neither was telling.

They looked like hell. In the car, and with the heater on, they had eventually warmed up, but Alec's hair had dried funny and they both had smudges of rooftop grime and dust all over.

Max eyed Alec semi-discreetly. He looked tired, was probably hungry. Somewhere between the rooftop and the SUV, he'd lost his bowtie entirely. His white dress shirt was dirty, and his shirt and hands were bloody from Trip.

Max unbuckled her seat belt and turned to dig through their belongings.

"What are you looking for?" he asked, trying not to watch her backside as it weaved, attempting to keep her balance.

"A towel or a wetnap or something," she started. "Gotta get this smudge off me."

"I have a bottle of water in my duffel," he offered.

Max unzipped his bag and felt around for the bottle. Her fingertips touched a smooth plastic, and she pulled the bottle out. She smiled upon seeing it was the Jasmine Bath Bubbles. She held it back toward Alec. "Is this for me?"

Alec felt guilty for smiling. "I was gonna wait until we were back in Seattle."

Max put the bottle back in his duffel and felt around for another. This time, the slosh of liquid convinced her and she pulled out the bottle. She also unzipped the side of her suitcase and pulled a stolen hotel towel from it.

Sitting back in her seat, she opened the bottle and wetted the towel. "Give me your hand," she said simply.

Alec looked to her for a moment, then back to the road. She had that one look about her – the one where she had set her mind to something, and even if you didn't understand, you damn well better do what she asked. He let his left hand hold the wheel and watched determination affirm itself to her face as he offered his right hand.

Silently, Max rubbed the terra cotta over his hand, letting her own rest beneath his, palm up. Her hands were warm, and the watered towel seemed to slough off the blood from the rooftop. She even washed at his forearm and wrist, smearing the blood until he couldn't tell if it had absorbed into the towel, or if it was just gone somewhere in his skin.

"Other hand," she said, still not looking at him. She released his right hand and doused the towel again.

Alec gripped the wheel with his right hand, noting the color difference between the two hands. One had the dried-on blood from clutching at Trip. Dirt grooved itself into the skin at his knuckles, his joints, some of his pores. His fingernails had grime and soot lining them. The other hand, he realized, had not been washed as thoroughly as he thought. She had spent time on it, rubbing most of the debris and powdery substances away with the towel, but the deeply embedded matter held traces at his deepest cracks, as if it was an outline or a hint at the events of the now-previous day. He turned his body slightly toward her and reached his left palm out to her.

Taking his hand, Max felt the air in the car change, or maybe it was just a feeling. To her, his open palm felt like an offering which promised total trust. To her, this was possibly the closest they'd ever been.

The fact didn't escape her that he still wore the wedding ring. It had caked-on dirt, a spot or two of blood, and a couple of scrapes, but he was still wearing it.

And the fact she still wore hers didn't escape him, either. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the glint of the metal peeking out from between his fingers as she slid the cloth between them and rubbed at the life line on his palm. He held his breath, waiting to see what she'd do about the rings, but she just rubbed the soft cloth in circles over his skin until it was clean enough, ignoring the dirty ring altogether.

Max caught herself in a flash image of moonlight shining on her ring as Alec's hand swept up her arm and laced its fingers in hers. The simple image tugged at some fantasy deep at her core, because she smiled to no one in particular, and her face took on a light blush. She suddenly could think of nothing else except how their hands intertwined, their skin caressing one another's. Somehow, the image promised his hand would always be there. She closed her eyes to bask in the concept of the image, hoping he couldn't read her mind, or at least that he wasn't looking.

But Alec noticed. "What are you thinking about?" he asked in a low tone usually reserved for up close and personal bar-talk. He wanted her to tell him he'd given her that smile, that it was something he had said or done to relax her and put that impossibly sexy, blushing smile on her lips, but he was terrified she'd suddenly say something about Logan.

"Nothing," she answered. She felt guilty to be thinking about that after such a harrowing experience. After losing Trip. She felt guilty about thinking they might need a distraction.

"That was not your 'nothing' face," he said.

Max finished with his hand, letting go of his and resting her own in her lap. The sudden loss of her warm skin clued him in she was done, and he pulled his arm back, unsure of what to say. Was he supposed to say thank you for washing away his dead friend? Or was her simple act indicative of something else? He wished she wasn't done.

Eventually, she worked a little on her own hands, but with much less attention than she'd given his. He would never know how desperately she had wished he had returned the favor.

It was as if he was suddenly attuned to her movements. Or still. It dawned on him he'd taken time when she wasn't looking to try to memorize every detail of how she looked tonight.

When he blinked, he thought about their almost-kiss in the hallway, at the start of the night, when they had nothing to lose and had a carefully constructed plan they would execute with perfection. She was filled with absolute hope. Throughout the gambling part of the night, up until the rooftop, he had entertained the idea that maybe there was something to her that had drawn him into her orbit. It seemed like she had let go of some preconception which only saw him as a menace to her life or an obstruction to her normalcy. And up on the rooftop, the snow glinting off the tears in her eyes as it dusted at everything below, he had seen her sincerity when she said he was better than what they designed him to be. He couldn't decide which moment was more amazingly beautiful.

Around six-thirty in the morning, they pulled off the freeway in Crescent Junction, Utah, for some water and gas. Without grabbing anything from her suitcase, Max headed toward the mart. "I got the gas. Need anything?"

Alec shook his head and as she disappeared into the mart to pay for the gas, he stepped out of the vehicle and began filling it up. He considered they might need a new ride before they got back to Seattle. They'd need to ditch the stolen SUV and pick up something other-state-ly.

For a moment, he thought about changing his clothes, but she hadn't, and he thought they may not have time to stop, and though he was in no danger of forgetting what happened not six hours ago, he wasn't ready to part with Trip. Trip's blood was the only physical evidence he had left.

Around the corner from the main entrance, Max found a working payphone and called Logan collect.

"Mrs. Crawford, huh?" Logan greeted. It was as if she was deliberately punishing him by using their assumed names. It was their misunderstanding, and, okay, he hadn't known to what conclusions she would jump, but couldn't she just give him a break on this one?

Max exhaled audibly. Did he expect her to just forgive him for being an ass? "Just keeping up my cover," she gritted, spreading her fingers out and staring at the ring.

"Where are you?"

"Crescent Junction. I think we got about eighteen hours left on the road. You got those IDs?"

A hush fell on Logan's lips.

"Logan? Tell me you got those IDs."

"I'm working on it," he said. "I'll try to have them ready when you get there. By the way, where is 'there'?"

"Santa Cruz."

"I'll do my best."

"Logan, you gotta come through for these kids."

She heard the tick-tick-tick of his typing. He had no answer for her.

"I'll call in a little while," she said, and promptly hung up.

When Max returned from the mart with two bags full of snacks and water, Alec had seated himself in the passenger's seat and had been fiddling with his sleeves, as if they made no sense folded up or unfolded, as if studying them would reveal a pattern that would help the situation make sense, or maybe, if his furrowed brow indicated anything, as if it pained him just to think about.

Back at Manticore, Max had never been a commanding officer. She was too young. When they escaped, it was Zack who had given their orders to split up, and even that was because when they all looked around to see who would intuit the group needs, none of their 'siblings' had stepped forward besides him. But with the deaths of Tinga and Ben, she had felt responsible. Zack had already told her how her emotional connections put others in danger. She had taken it to heart, this task of being accountable for their unit. When she felt her best wasn't good enough to save them, it had ripped her heart out. It all made her believe the guarded man sitting so small in the passenger's seat was probably going through more than he let on.

Max passed in front of the SUV, purposefully struggling with the bags so she could alert him to her presence and try to give him the option of pulling himself back together. If he could.

Clumsily, she opened the driver's side door and extended the provisions to Alec as she slid into the seat.

"How did you get this? You hiding more money?" He refrained from glancing toward the bust of her dress, remembering their earlier conversation.

Max smiled mischievously and closed the heavy door.

"What'd you get? Funyons and Ho-Hos?" Alec peeked into the bags. A small smile crooked up his mouth.

Just watching his face made her smile.

"Hamburgers, bananas and chocolate?" He looked over to her. He pulled a hamburger out and unwrapped it in his lap.

Max started the vehicle.

"Did you happen to get-"

"In the bag," she interrupted.

He peeked back in and moved a few items around. His face lit up again. He pulled three packets of mustard out as Max steered them back onto the highway.

_Food._ Apparently, food is the magic mood-enhancer. Alec almost smiled as he tore into the burger. She would never admit it out loud, but Max thoroughly enjoyed his animalistic behavior as he ate. Maybe it seemed like part of his personality was returning to stasis if he allowed himself the luxury of nourishment.

"Bite?" he asked, his mouth full and mustard nearly dripping out of the burger. He waved it toward her.

She was going to say no, but before she realized it, "yeah, sure," flew out of her mouth. He neared the sandwich to her and she took a healthy bite. At the same time, the SUV hit a dip in the road, which caused Alec's arm to shove the burger against her chin. The act sent a glob of mustard to her face.

They both burst into laughter.

"Nice moustache," Alec said, raising the pad of this thumb to her lip and smearing the yellow from her face. He brought his thumb back and tongued the mustard from it.

It was an unconscious act, but something about it caused an increase in tension in the cabin. Alec would never have done that to Original Cindy or Sketchy or Asha.

He cleared his throat and returned to eating the burger. "Can I get one set up for you?"

"Yeah, sure." She was feeling almost giddy.

"Extra mustard?"

"Absolutely."

Alec dug through the bag and pulled another burger, and as Max took care to avoid the bumps in the road, he laid the sandwich open on his lap and carefully doused it in mustard.

She liked this about Alec – that she could eat a burger or a sandwich or whatever with him. Their meals didn't have to consist of Kobe beef burgers direct from Japan or specialty cheeses meant to be eaten with crackers and jelly, or surf and turf with a Pre-Pulse whatever. Being at Il Giardino sure opened up her taste buds to a few flavors she'd never tried before, and that experience had been worth it; but, she didn't feel like she had pretenses to maintain with Alec.

He closed the burger and wrapped it so Max could hold it, drive, and still eat without getting mustard everywhere.

"Thanks."

After Alec finished his second burger, he tilted the seat back and promptly fell asleep. She figured, after their harrowing experience, and considering how his cocktail excluded shark DNA, he could probably use some rest.

As the trees passed on the side of the road, Max looked over to his slumped form. This whole mission had opened her eyes to a couple more sides of Alec she hadn't known existed, a couple more sides she appreciated for their honesty and liberty. Joshua's words floated into her mind as he described the painting of Alec. _Alec very complicated. Outside, lots of pretty colors. Tricks and treats. Inside, darkness. Confusion._

In the passenger's side window, Alec's face reflected back toward her. It was different than his normal face, somehow. His usually boyish features were heavy with maturity. His normally smooth cheeks were stubbled with a day and half's growth. His brow was slightly furrowed and his lips slightly pursed. His body seemed tensed like a wire. She thought maybe he was having a dream.

No matter how long she'd been away from Manticore, she never seemed able to shake the nightmares. Some of them were so painfully realistic she'd wake up screaming and clutching the sheets or pillows in desolation, and anyone who tried to wake her up be damned by her fearful and angry flails. With others she could sometimes wake herself up and calm herself down.

Alec's face displayed the beginnings of the first type of nightmare. His breathing became more labored with each passing minute, his brows started to scrunch down; his eyes squeezed shut a little tighter; he grinded his teeth.

"No," he mumbled.

Max pulled the SUV over and rolled to a stop, shifting the vehicle into 'park'.

"No!" he shouted, his arms jutting out, grasping for a handle. His right hand hit the door, and his left reached toward the center console and ended up smacking against Max's arm.

If she could help it, she was going to try to save him from the nightmare. Max rubbed his arm gently. "Alec, wake up."

His eyes snapped open and soon relaxed as he found his bearings.

"You okay?"

Alec cleared his throat, having no idea how loud he had been. "Mm-hmm."

Max studied his face again. His pupils were returning to normal size and the worried lines were fading back into his forehead. "Nightmare?" she asked, though it sounded like she knew the answer already.

Alec brought his hands back and tilted his seat up. He stared at his sleeves for a moment before checking Max's bare arms, her face, her legs. "Yeah," he answered gruffly.

Images of the rooftop massacre cut through his mind, spraying the sight of Trip's reddened body and helpless, lifeless eyes all over his memory. He had dreamt that maybe he could have saved Trip. He had replayed it over in his mind through the dream.

The first time, dream Trip tried to duck out of the line of fire, but the Roses had still passed bullets in a sweep at their feet. The second time, dream Alec and Trip had both ducked behind the fixture with Max, but the Morinos had leveled their guns on all three, pulled their triggers, and managed to hit only Trip. But the third time, dream Max dove in front of Trip to protect him, and both Trip and Max had ended up full of bullet holes, bleeding out at Alec's feet.

Trip was killed instantly, the snow freezing his corpse, but Max lay there, motionless except for the shivering, pleading with Alec to somehow save her. He held her head and stroked her hair and begged her to stay with him, tears spilling down his cheeks, but she couldn't hold on. Her heart stopped and suddenly, her eyes stilled and her chest failed to rise again. Alec had yelled out 'no' and pulled her to him in a desperate embrace, but he found himself alone on the rooftop with her lifeless body, wondering what he was supposed to do now and crying out into the darkness.

Alec decided he wasn't going to tell her about that. He shut his eyes tight and tried to will the images away. When he opened them again, he double-checked Max's limbs for bullets.

Max felt his eyes roaming over her. It felt like a desperate attempt to make sure she was okay. She figured maybe he had dreamt about her. She wanted to tell him she was fine, but those words froze in her throat.

Alec settled a little, embarrassed, and avoided her line of sight. He looked back, and saw her warm brown eyes fixed on him. He looked away again, and when he looked back, there she was again, challenging him to stay with her, challenging him to open up to her, because she wasn't going anywhere.

"Do you want to change shirts?" Max asked, thinking that maybe removing the garment would ease his tenseness.

Alec followed her stare to his bloody sleeves. The redness had seeped in, dried and stained. He would have to throw the shirt away, and suddenly, that was the last thing he wanted to do.

He couldn't answer, which was answer enough for Max. She returned her stare to the road, despite how desperately she wanted to watch his face and take back her question.

After a few minutes of silence, Alec finally spoke. "Back at Manticore, Trip was always the strongest of his peers. Easily alpha material," he began. Max smiled with him. "Years ago, a couple of younger Xs were fighting over 733."

"Who's that?"

"Scarlet," he added before continuing. "They were arguing about which of them she would go after once she hit her first heat cycle."

_Twisted,_ Max thought. _Manticore was going to let that happen?_ She remembered how confused she was when she had her first cycle.

"And Trip breaks up the argument, staring over at Scar, and says they shouldn't bother, because he was certain they were gonna, you know, mate, once she hit her first heat."

Max's brows rose in surprise at Trip's confidence. It was kind of romantic, in a way, how certain he was that he and Scar had such a connection.

Alec stared into the distance. "And she just gave him this look, like he was the cockiest bastard on the face of the planet," he recalled, remembering the look Max had given him in her cell that day.

Max thought back to the way Scar had latched on to Trip back in the space between floors. She cared about him. "But isn't she-" Max started, looking over to Alec.

He completed her sentence. "Madly in love with him? Yeah, she is." Alec smiled, genuinely happy that Trip could have found his mate so early on.

Max felt her cheeks burning, smiling at his memory.

"And the kinda fucked up, sweet thing about them? They were gonna be breeding partners." Alec's smile fell to a slight pout as it dawned on him that they were going to have to tell Scarlet what happened to Trip. "And now I have to tell her that her soulmate is gone."

Max almost burst into tears right then. She couldn't imagine loving someone since she was fifteen and losing him before their life even began. This world was definitely fucked up beyond repair.

Alec returned his sight to the road, unmoving in front of them. His mind replayed the images of dream Max getting shot to death, and a look of dread washed over him. He wasn't sure if he had it in him to shatter a young girl's life with such crippling news.

Though she knew he was struggling with something, probably how to tell Scar about Trip's demise, Max kept her eyes forward. She wanted the privacy from his glance as much as he wanted it from hers. She imagined being at Jam Pony and receiving the news that something terrible had happened to Alec. She had zero idea if she would be able to speak, stand, walk, or do anything. She froze in place, her heartbeat increasing until she heard it in her ears.

"Max, you're crying. Are you okay?" came his deep, smooth voice.

Max looked over to Alec. He seemed concerned. She hadn't realized she was crying. Quickly, she used her knuckles to wipe her eyes, and turned over the ignition. "Let's get back on the road."


	13. Getting the Stories Straight

The rest of the ride to Henderson was met with some silence from both transgenics. Alec couldn't go back to sleep after the nightmare, but Max had seemed so upset about something that he feigned sleep until either he could figure out what to say or figure out why she was so upset.

The last thing he had said to her was that he had to tell Scar that her soulmate was gone. Maybe that had prompted her to think about her soulmate. He made a face as his stomach soured at the thought of Max's reaction if she had heard that Logan had died. It was filled with angst and complete sadness. And he realized that he would have to watch it, because there was no way he was going to be leaving Seattle anytime soon. He had ties.

He remembered some advice he had once given Max. He had told her they didn't belong with Ordinaries, because transgenics were a danger to them. Silently, Alec scolded himself for that. How much of that was his own belief she didn't belong with Logan, and how much was it just guilt and reaction to a prematurely astute observation?

He knew he couldn't have stayed with Rachel, especially after she knew the truth about him. She had looked at him as if he was a monster. He had been a danger to her. He had betrayed her. _And look how that turned out_, he added sardonically.

But, who says it would be the same in all transgenic-human relationships? Joshua had never been in love before Annie, he was certain. But what kind of life could they have lived? Joshua's transgenic-ness got her involved, and it got her killed. Alec's heart broke all over again for his canine-enhanced friend.

Max's twin had lived a fairly successful life up until she broke cover. A human husband and human son. _And then how did it play out?_

What about transgenic-transgenic relationships? Gem didn't exactly have the best experience with her breeding partner. Following orders made her a mother, which to Gem's credit she was great at, but Manticore hadn't thought about what its soldiers wanted or didn't want.

Then again, Trip and Scar could really have been great together. They were devoted from the first glance. Certainly, love at first sight wasn't a gene that could have been spliced into their DNA, so what other truth could he glean from the situation other than the idea that they were capable of love, no matter the danger that love posed? And now Trip was dead.

Alec sighed heavily. He didn't like being right about this. He really didn't like being right, because it meant Max would be miserable forever.

"You okay?" Max asked.

He opened his eyes and watched how cleverly she disguised purposefully not looking at him. "Didn't fool you, huh?"

Max gave him a faux-smile. "Transgenic, remember?" she said, drawing a parallel between them which drove the point further in his mind. She may as well have just said, 'W_e're always doomed_.'

At least transgenics and transhumans knew the truth about one another, he thought. They had been through much of the same things – training, torture, loss. Alec said nothing more, just looked out the window at the passing scenery.

Max continued to wonder what he had dreamt about. She wondered if he had dreamt about her, but decided it was probably Rachel. All this talk of soulmates had probably conjured up his feelings for the only woman he had ever loved. She wondered if any woman could ever compare to Rachel.

* * *

A little while later, they gassed up again just inside the Henderson city limits before getting back on the freeway. Alec took a turn at the wheel and offered to let Max sleep.

"Not quite tired yet."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

Alec tried to prepare himself for the response he knew asking this question might evoke. "What happened with Logan? Lately, you always tense up after you talk to him. Even though I was drunk, I could tell something had upset you."

Max looked down to her ring and covered it with her other hand. The more they talked about stuff 'back home,' the sooner reality would creep up into the conversation and they'd have to start acting like themselves again. Their respective reputations would shift back into place. And as much as she didn't want to admit it, she had liked wearing the ring, feeling secure, being his wife.

But back home, they'd be faced with Logan's prying questions and expectant stares. They'd be faced with that 'outsider' glare, and they'd have to explain what had happened. They would no doubt talk about the hotel arrangements and how they had shared a bed; everything with Biggs and Trip; he'd want to know about it all, but she didn't want to tell him. And they'd have to take off their rings.

Besides the explanations, Max really wasn't ready to forgive him, yet. "He's a pretty smart guy," she started. "But for some reason, he thought you and I would be better, you know, related." She couldn't even say the words. It infuriated her that Logan was so unobservant.

"Which is why we got married IDs," Alec filled in. "So how come you were so tense that night? Did I upset you or something?"

Max's lips formed a thin line before she revealed, "He just really pissed me off. He thinks he can read my mind, but he can't. He has no idea what I think about my unit, about them – Zack, Tinga. Ben."

The last name was said with such an amazingly soft, irate suggestion, that suddenly, it was clear to Alec what had happened. "Brother and sister?" His grip tightened on the wheel as Max looked away. "Why the hell would he do that?" he asked, his eyebrows quirking up and down as he tried several lines of logic that entered his thoughts. "He knows about Ben, right?"

_Jerk, _he added mentally. _Yeah, make her think about her dead brother. As if my face doesn't already haunt her enough. Doesn't he understand what drawing parallels between me and Ben does to Max? I don't even know the guy and I've been paying for his sins damn near my whole life, including the greatest sin he could have ever committed: breaking Max's heart by asking her to do what she did._

"He only knows Ben is dead," she replied, looking down at her hands again like Lady MacBeth bored into her own.

"Oh, Jesus, Max, I'm sorry," Alec offered, reaching to cover her hands with his right hand. She needed to stop blaming herself and he'd risk his best hand if not looking at her own would provide some relief. He considered pulling over, but dismissed the idea; she would just be too embarrassed and shut down or shut him out.

Max stared at the pores of his skin. She understood his gesture, and contrary to what she may have thought at the start of their journey, she felt some warm comfort from it.

"Why would he do that without talking to you first? Unless-"

"Unless what? Unless he's actually trying to push me away?"

"Or push us apart," Alec added lowly, refusing to look at her. He wanted to see her reaction without betraying his own thoughts. He wouldn't put it past the Ordinary to act passive-aggressively with an offensive move, such as trying to condition Max's response to Alec to be one of sibling relation. What better way to remove him as a threat?

Max opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. _Sure, it's no secret that Logan doesn't particularly like Alec, per se, and Alec does have more in common with me than Logan does, but would Logan really stoop so low as to use my dead brother against me? Against Alec? If so, _she wondered, _is that someone who I would really want to be with? Someone who has my best interests at heart?_

She attempted to brush off Alec's comment, but she just kept thinking about it. Logan knew Alec wasn't in her unit, and that consequently, that meant Alec was not her brother, so what other conclusion should she have come to except that Alec was right?

Max sunk further into her seat and stared at their hands expectantly, until she was satisfied they didn't have the answer. She stared out the window.

_Well, she didn't tell me I was full of shit, _Alec thought. _Which means we are close enough to be pushed apart._ He felt the air thicken and the guilt rise up in his chest. Unsure of how to help or what to say, he stared straight ahead and continued driving.

Logan could not have less control over Max or Alec if he tried. Alec doubted that Max had shared much more of her personal history with the journalist if she hadn't told him about Ben. And it wasn't Logan's to ask or know. He'd look at her like Rachel had looked at Alec. Alec grimaced at the thought of anyone disparaging Max. She was probably the best person he knew, transgenic or not. She was also the bitchiest person he knew, transgenic or not. But it was getting clearer by the day why she was like that.

And no amount of Logan's meddling could change the wild-eyed desire Alec felt around her into a sibling moral ambiguity.

But, he was relieved to hear that Max was angry at Logan for insisting a familial relationship between them. It gave him some hope that one day she'd be able to see just Alec when she looked at him.

"Want me to beat him up?" he asked, a small smile tilting toward her.

Max looked over to him. She grinned.

* * *

A few hours passed as they crossed into California and over the morning, and people started to pepper the roads, going about their lives.

Max saw a couple of families with kids in the back seats, fighting, sleeping, and playing. _Soon, these kids will be able to join them, _she thought. _We'll make sure they'll have a chance at a real life. At being kids and not having to worry about their next meal or where they're going to sleep, or which tattoo removal facility would work on kids._

She glanced at Alec. This whole experience was so surprising. He had really come through for the kids, and even though Trip had ideas which aided to his own demise, Alec's heart seemed completely involved. Had she just assumed this whole time that he was a heartless, womanizing narcissist? Or was she assuming it because she wanted him to prove her wrong?

She wondered what life would be like when they got back to Seattle. Would she forgive Logan his misconceptions and misdeeds and continue to moon over him? Would Max and Alec go back to arguing and goading one another, pretending – when they had to – that they hadn't shared more than they intended on this journey? Would Alec go back to trying to court Asha?

"Hey, Alec."

"Yeah."

Max fidgeted, trying to figure out how to bring up the topic of Asha and how Biggs had talked about her. "Biggs mentioned Asha while you were heaving in Technicolor the other night."

He let slip an accidental guilty look. "Yeah?"

Max bit the inside of her cheek and tried to figure out what she was trying to ask – or more importantly, why she was trying to ask it. "How did she come up?"

Alec tried to remember how he and Biggs started talking about Asha. Parts of that night were a bit hazy, but he was pretty sure he had mentioned something about Asha's role in the whole group dynamic. S1W soldier, pixie Eyes Only/Logan groupie. "Well, what did Biggs say?"

_Typical man, trying to do pre-damage control._ Biggs had suggested that Logan had somehow chosen Asha over Max. It dawned on her that maybe he was suggesting that Alec had. _Which makes my response stupid, _Max thought. _They're not like that, but not because she's not trying,_ she repeated in her mind.

If it was Logan that Biggs was talking about, then Max's immediate response proved to her that Asha actually posed a pretty serious threat to Max's romantic involvement with Logan. _Hell, she was comfortable in his penthouse, alone._

But if he meant Alec had already chosen Asha over Max, well, then she didn't understand why her face started feeling hot. And she didn't understand how he could have chosen one over the other, because she didn't know she was even one of his choices.

"You talking about your 'not-like-that' comment?" he asked, interrupting her thoughts.

Max lowered her head out of embarrassment. "You heard that?"

Alec pointed to his ear. He smirked and said, "Transgenic, remember?" He smiled and continued. "Biggsy's just a hornball."

Even though that was most definitely true, Alec hadn't intended on souring Max's mood any further by suggesting that Asha's barefooted presence in an otherwise unoccupied penthouse apartment belonging to a certain cyber hack they both knew was indicative of anything other than the two Ordinaries' 'friendship.'

Max laughed. "So you're her pimp now?"

Alec smiled. "No, just saying there are some available ladies in Seattle if he's interested in moving there."

Suddenly, Max found herself wondering if Alec had placed her on that list. "Oh yeah? Like who?"

Alec grinned knowingly. "Besides Asha?" Max was getting a jealous expression on her face and he loved it.

_Is he deflecting?_ she wondered. "Besides Asha."

He resisted the urge to say 'Original Cindy,' though the idea of it tickled him deeply. He looked to Max a moment. "You mean did I tell him you were available?"

_Busted._

He softened. "Now why would I want my second-in-command going after my wife?" he joked. Nonetheless, that twinkle returned to his eye for just a moment.

Max faced the passenger's side window to hide her smile and pride.

* * *

At the gas station, Alec put his suit jacket back on and disappeared into the mart to pay for the gas as Max pumped it into the SUV. She soaked up the remaining bits of the sun. The air was still a little chilly and it reminded her of home.

She could see Alec through the windows and caught herself daydreaming about some alternate universe where they weren't brought up in a militaristic government facility or created in test tubes. Where they were normal. They could have lives where they weren't being hunted or didn't have an extremely unfortunate secret which could stand so firmly between life and death.

Smiling to herself, she replaced the pump as Alec walked back toward the vehicle. He looked like he was hiding something, but she needed to call Logan and find out if he got his hands on those IDs, so she didn't pay any mind to his suspicious behavior.

"Gotta make a call," she said as she passed him on her way to the payphone.

Logan's voice was different this time. Hesitant. "There was some chatter about gunfire at the Lux. Are you okay? Why didn't you tell me?"

Max pursed her lips. "I'm fine. Alec's fine. We lost one of the kids." Admitting it to Logan felt like telling someone you lied to that you were sorry. Caught. Tears started to well her eyes.

It was quiet on the line before he spoke again. "Aw, Max, it's going to be okay."

_Not for Scar. Not for Alec. And not for me. Not at all. _"Please give me some good news," she begged.

"I'm sorry, Max, but I need more time for those IDs."

Max grinded her teeth in frustration. What was she going to tell Biggs? What would the kids do? How could Alec ever trust her again if she couldn't get those IDs? She feared how he'd look at her when she let him down.

"Max?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"I'm really sorry. I tried to get them."

"Yeah, me, too," she said absent-mindedly. She peeked toward the SUV, where it looked as though Alec was carefully folding his jacket and placing it in the back with their bags.

"I'll keep trying," he said. "Give me a call when you get to Santa Cruz and maybe I'll have something for you."

Alec leaned against the driver's side and looked down at his sleeves.

"I gotta bounce," Max said. She hung up the receiver.

The walk back to the SUV proved a longer trek than she thought. She had to tell Alec the truth, and she felt like after all this, he would never ask for her help again. The closer she got to the vehicle, the lower he seemed to sink. He hadn't noticed her approach, and by the time she reached him, he was still staring at his sleeves.

She wanted to ask if he was okay, but somehow, she knew she couldn't bear it if 'I'm always okay' didn't come rolling off his tongue.

Maybe it was time for the shirt to come off.

Max walked to stand between him and the pump. Finally, he looked up.

"Ready to go?"

Max reached out for his right arm. "Not yet." She folded down his sleeve and repeated the action on his other side. She looked to his partially confused eyes, which flashed to hers before following her hands up to the topmost buttoned portion of his shirt. She worked the button loose and let a breath go that she wasn't aware she was holding.

Alec brought both hands up to hers and stilled her movements with gentle pressure. She furrowed her brow in concern, chanced a look into his eyes, and pulled her hands down to the next button. She had that look again. She was going to do this and he damned-well better let her.

He dropped his hands as she unbuttoned a few more of the white round pieces of plastic, revealing the white v-neck tee he wore underneath. She reached the waist of his pants, and without hesitation, tugged the tails of his shirt out. She unfastened the last button and looked up to him.

Paralyzed by the whole act, he realized he was at her mercy, his lips slightly parted.

Max swept her fingertips under the dress shirts' lapels and over his shoulders, stepping closer to him, dragging her hands down the backs of his arms to help remove the cloth. Gathering the material in on hand, Max handed the article to him.

Maybe she was too close for his comfort. Maybe that's why he was staring at her as if she'd just chipped away a piece of his defenses.

He watched as the corners of her mouth drew up in a small grin. "I know, I know. I couldn't make it home without undressing you at least once."

He knew she was lightening the mood, but he suddenly found it difficult to escape the images in his brain.

"We got a rendezvous to make," she said, slinking around the vehicle to the passenger's side.

* * *

On the final leg of the ride to Santa Cruz, the two transgenics stayed mostly quiet, and as they got closer to their meeting place, they realized they were getting closer to having to tell Biggs and Scar about Trip.

And Max was trying to find a way to break the news to Alec that Logan hadn't come through with the paperwork for the kids. Too many parts of the mission were failures, and she wasn't sure if he'd forgive her for that.

Alec had been quiet, but he had stared at her for multiple stretches of time, as if he wanted to say something but continually talked himself out of it.

"What?" Max asked, finally having grown tired of the silence. "Something on my face again?" She raised a hand partway to her face and remembered their near-kiss in the hallway.

Despite how desperately she wanted him to look at her like he had before, he didn't. Alec didn't smile. Instead, his face grew very serious. "Thanks," he said quietly, almost as if he was admitting something embarrassing. "For… the shirt thing."

Max nodded. Somehow, it was acceptable for someone else to remove the shirt, but not him. The vulnerability in his deep voice tugged at her heart, and she couldn't deny that she probably wouldn't have done that for anyone else, guy or girl. And she had a strong feeling he wouldn't have let anyone else do that for him.

She eyed the bag at her feet and pulled it up to rummage through it. "Snack?"

Alec smiled. "Only if you make it the same way I did."

Max busied herself with splitting the banana peel and wedging a square of chocolate into the fruit before breaking off a piece and raising it to Alec's mouth. He didn't move his hands from their positions at the wheel and arm rest. As he took some of the fruit into his mouth, his lips closed around her thumb and forefinger, dragging their softness along her fingertips. It was the ghost of a moment that didn't happen in his apartment.

Momentarily, Alec closed his eyes to savor the richness of the chocolate with the sweetness of the banana. He hummed appreciatively. "A guy could get used to that," he said.

"You should probably keep your eyes on the road," Max replied, pulling her hand back to prepare a piece for herself.

He watched her in his peripheral, eying the delicate way she pushed the chocolate into the banana. Yet another contradiction to the careful reputation she had constructed of being a badass, leather-clad know-it-all without an ounce of gentility. He smiled as she ate a small piece and licked her fingers of the banana residue.

Max shifted in her seat and took a deep breath. "Alec?"

Her voice sounded so serious. It worried him. "Yeah?"

Max fidgeted with the chocolate, half-sticking out of the banana like a flag. She wanted to tell him about the IDs and Logan. She wanted to tell him he was okay, that agreeing not to kill Marco was a good thing; she wanted to tell him that she was sorry about Trip, that they had done all they could have. But she couldn't form the words and stared down at her hands and the banana until all the chocolate squares stuck out in a mini banana Mohawk. "Thanks for introducing me to bananas and chocolate," she finally said.

_Weak,_ she thought.

"Told you you'd thank me," he said. The banana looked odd and it made the corners of his mouth start a curl upward. "You gonna hog that banana all night?"

Max slapped him teasingly with her left hand. "Does everything you say have to be sexual?" She broke off another piece.

"You're the one who suggested – oof-" Alec grunted as Max shoved the piece into his mouth. He stopped his sentence and pushed the heavenly combination to the roof of his mouth until they melted into one another.

"Is this all it takes to shut you up? We should get a lifetime supply of this stuff for TC."

"If that's what it takes to get you to feed me, I know a couple guys."

"Well I hope you like them a lot, because they'll be the only ones feeding you."

"No, I like you more," he said. "Besides, they definitely would not look as hot as you in bikinis."

Max smiled insincerely and slapped him again.

"Ow!"

"That's what you get for being a chauvinist!"

"Is that what you call hitting on someone? Where'd you learn to flirt, Max? The School of Literal Hard Knocks?"

"So funny," she said. "Let me guess: Manticore had a 'Flirting For Dummies' class." She smiled at her own joke.

He loved it when she smiled. It was sexier than her scowl, but sometimes he never broke through her defenses and had to suffice with the saucy spice that came with her dagger-like stare. "Yeah. Come on by and I can teach you a lesson or two!"


	14. Getting A Hold On You

The moon cast soft white light over the boardwalk and the sand as Alec and Max parked the SUV in the lot adjacent to the restaurant. In various parts of the beach, people had set up bonfires and were warming themselves and socializing. They seemed celebratory.

Alec recognized the bus Biggs acquired sitting safely and peacefully a few spaces away. "You ready?"

Max nodded solemnly. No, she wasn't ready. She wasn't ready to tell both of them about the IDs, she wasn't ready to tell Biggs and Scar about Trip, and she wasn't ready to go back to Seattle with these failures on her mind and heavy on her heart. But she knew they'd have to do this eventually.

The two tired transgenics slipped onto the sandy asphalt and headed toward the beach. It was warmer than Seattle, and besides in training at Manticore, Max had never walked on sand. Within moments she realized her heeled shoes would do no good. She removed them and let them hang from her fingers as she and Alec made their way past the first bonfire and over to another circled by some of the kids they'd last seen climbing awkwardly out the window and to their freedom. A hopeful yellow light flickered over their faces. For some of them, the last time they'd seen fire was when Manticore burned.

Biggs came around the fire smiling. He trudged through the sand and met them halfway, but as soon as the firelight danced across Alec's face, Biggs knew something was wrong, and his smile faded. "What happened?"

Max hung her head and tried to make sense of the tiny dunes of sand somehow holding them all up. She cleared her throat. "We have some bad news," she began.

Alec looked to her just to see if she was going to continue, but Biggs was already piecing it together. He looked behind them, then back to the kids at the fire.

As if on cue, his eyes met Scar's and she immediately stood up and made her way to them. Biggs frowned, twisting back to Alec. "Where's Trip?"

Plagued by speechlessness, Alec pursed his lips and anger rode up into his throat.

Scar stopped across from Max. The silence carried on for moments long than it should have, until Max's face betrayed the outcome to Scar, and Alec said quietly, "He's gone."

Scar's eyes welled with tears, and despite how badly Max wanted to comfort the teen, she felt out of place, as if somehow, the responsibility to comfort was not hers.

"I'm so sorry, Scar," Alec started. Scar had started sobbing against what she thought was her better judgment, and as Alec's arms circled around her, they sank down onto the sand and she let the sobs come out freely.

It was a pleasantly surprising sight, watching Alec provide her with that support.

Biggs looked sad, and watched how Max's eyes seemed to flutter from the weight of her own tears. He nodded in the direction of the fire and Max joined him on the short trek back to it. Alec and Scar needed a minute or two.

"You okay?" Biggs asked.

Max's head jerked back, surprised. "Are _you_ okay? Wasn't trip in your unit?"

Biggs nodded, shame drifting up into his eyes. "How did it happen?"

Taking a deep breath, Max began. "We got shuffled up to the roof. The Roses and Morinos started a firefight, and it seemed like we were all screwed." She paused to look away from him. "And then Alec and trip had this 'Algeria plan' or something. I just don't know why he did it…" she trailed. "We were going to improvise a way out, but then Trip ran and he just got shot over and over."

Max stared into the fire as Biggs took a deep breath, his dark eyes glued to her face, waiting for the rest of the story.

"There was nothing we could do. More guards were on their way and the chopper was already gone, and Trip was already gone."

Biggs joined her gaze, staring into the red-yellow flames, flames whose power was destructive and whose heat altered everything. He thought about his own deployments and undercover ops. He'd already lost so many in the name of Manticore, and he had known the risks. Sometimes, not everyone came back from battle. And it sucked, but that's how it was.

Max bit the inside of her cheek. "And there's something else."

Biggs looked at her expectantly.

Max fidgeted. "My contact wasn't able to acquire IDs for the kids. But I'll stay here and help with placement. I've already thought about it."

Biggs placed a warm hand on her shoulder. "It's not a problem." He gave her shoulder a squeeze. "I already got those taken care of."

She couldn't hide her surprise. "You did?"

Biggs feigned injury to his heart, much in the same way Alec defended against her barbs. "You think so low of me that I'd leave out the second most important piece of the mission?"

She hadn't thought about it. She'd been used to being the one who sought out contacts and buyers and private investigators. Of course Biggs had already lined up the necessary documents. He was Manticore-trained after all. "Sorry," she managed.

"Alec didn't mention it to you? I told him about it at Tease."

Max wasn't listening. She was lost in her own thoughts. Of course Logan wasn't the only one with contacts – it had just been convenient for him to do some of the non-legwork. It dulled her capabilities. And again, Alec's words crept into her mind. _We don't belong with them. We,_ she repeated in her mind.

She chanced a look back to Alec and Scar. He was gently stroking her hair and rocking her almost imperceptibly. Scar just shook in desperate, noiseless sorrow. Her eyes were shut tight and her hands hugged at her own arms.

Max felt the sting of fresh tears, aggravated by the smoke from the bonfire. She just couldn't fathom what it felt like to lose the most important person in one's own life. Maybe Scar would eventually move on, but right now, her soul was shattered, and it just didn't seem fair.

Looking up to Alec's face, she suddenly felt a pang of desolation throughout her body. He was staring straight into her eyes, and she couldn't help but feel as if he was trying to tell her something; the urgent sadness in his stare dared her to look away.

Biggs' voice seeped into their silence. "He doesn't realize how lucky he is," he said vaguely. He was staring at her staring at Alec. Just then, Alec and Scar stood and headed toward the lot. "He's lucky to have someone like you looking out for him," Biggs said, staring back into the fire.

Max remained quiet, keeping an eye on the two forms as they rummaged through the items in the SUV.

"He hasn't ever had anyone like that before. He needs that."

As the tall X5 and the teen headed back to the beach, Max looked to Biggs. "He's had you," she said.

Biggs smiled, but deflected. "Not what I mean," he said as Scar stepped toward the fire clutching Alec's bloodied shirt, his warm hand gently pushing her forward.

"Listen up everyone," Alec called out. The kids at the bonfire and Biggs and Max all shut their mouths and turned their attention to Alec. He ushered Scar forward more.

"Um," she began, wringing her fingers in the shirt. "Will you all gather around please? I want to say goodbye to Trip."

A few gasps escaped some of the kids, but they each stood and gathered on the same side of the fire as Scar. The three adults hung back as Scar spoke barely above a whisper.

"Trip was my best friend. He used to say there was nothing we couldn't do as long as we were together. And we were gonna be together forever." Scar took a deep breath and pressed a few tears from her puffy eyes. "He was a great soldier, and I just know he would have been a great father one day."

Max eyed Alec discreetly. He was shadowed by the flames, tiny flecks of light sparkling in his eyes.

He knew she was watching him. He felt her stare. He always felt her stare.

"Many of you knew him, were friends with him, looked up to him. I'm really gonna miss him." Scar let a few tears stream down. In a tiny whisper, she added, "I loved him."

Alec clenched his jaw and looked away from Scar for a moment.

Scar looked down to the balled-up shirt in her hands. It was the proof of everything Trip would never get a chance to do. It was proof she was alone. She grasped it tightly and shut her eyes.

Max's mouth fell open in a silent cry. She'd never seen anyone so painfully honest or so heartbroken. She closed her eyes against the forming tears and tried to will them away.

As suddenly as she'd taken a breath to try to stifle her cry, she felt a warm hand dragging itself into hers, fingers intertwining with hers. She shivered involuntarily at his touch and looked up to him.

"Cold?" he asked quietly.

Max shook her head and dared to leave her hand in his. Even if she wanted to, there was no way she even could move it. And she didn't want to. He was there, supporting her, even though it was a member of _his _'family' that they were mourning.

Filled with overwhelming gratitude for every time he'd been there for her, and wanting to show some reciprocity, Max hesitantly raised her other hand to Alec's arm and rested her hand at the crook of his elbow. She didn't really do comfort, and it made her worry she wasn't able to offer it properly, but she was committed to it and kept her hand on his arm.

He gave her hand a gentle squeeze in response.

Max chanced a look up at Alec, but he wasn't looking at her, and maybe that was a good thing, she found herself thinking, because that urgent sadness was overtaking him, and she wasn't sure she could bear it if all of that sadness was focused on her.

She regretted the thought as she finished thinking it. Of course it was a selfish thought. Hadn't Alec done so much for her already?

Before he could succumb to Max's gaze, Alec met Scar partway through the crowd of children. His hand and arm slipped through Max's grasp, and he accepted the shirt Scar held out.

"I can't," she said between sobs.

Max stifled her sniffle. Now, Alec would have to do this for Scar, just as she had done for Alec. It was okay that someone else removed the bloodied shirt. It would be okay that someone else 'buried' Trip.

From behind him, Max could see the difficulty he was having by the slight twitching of his shoulders and back. He didn't want to do this, but he had to. She understood why he had to. He was their CO. He was an authority figure, and how he handled this would be the model for how they handled similar loss in the future.

But Max also understood the toll it took on a soldier to experience loss, and to pretend that not knowing why wasn't important, and to pretend that compartmentalizing made it somehow easier.

She stood statue-still, except for the way the breeze played at her dress, trying to send him the silent, invisible support he would never admit to wanting or needing.

Alec turned to face everyone, standing next to the fire. "'Tention!" he ordered.

Between them, most of the kids fell into two lines, each kid with their chins up, chests out, arms perfectly still at their sides. The other kids, unsure of what to do, mirrored the Manticore kids' stances.

Max found herself conforming to his call, and caught Biggs doing the same.

Alec turned on his heel, opened up the shirt, and lobbed it gently into the fire.

As the group of fugitives watched the shirt burn, they held the silence respectfully. Alec saluted the shirt, holding perfect form.

One by one, Scar, Max, Biggs and the remaining kids each raised their right hands, honoring Trip's memory.

Alec didn't break the salute until the shirt was gone, standing stoically facing the fire and releasing breath as if he'd been holding his breath the whole time.

"At ease," he commanded, more to Trip's memory than to the group.

The kids dispersed and huddled in small groups.

"Fifteen minutes," Biggs said to the children. "We've all had a long day and we need an early start tomorrow."

Biggs, Alec and Max met between the kids and the entrance to the beach. Biggs shook Alec's hand in a silent 'thanks.' They patted one another on the back, and Alec's eyes flitted to Max a moment before returning to Biggs. "So have you given any thought to Seattle?"

Biggs smiled and looked toward Max. "Remember that woman from Think Ink?" Biggs looked between them before a smile spread on his face. "She's meeting me here."

Alec's eyes grew wide, and Max detected they contained some happiness for his friend.

"I know what you're thinking. How do I know it'll work out? Well, we don't. But we belong together, and life is so short, why waste our time analyzing everything to death?"

Biggs watched Max as if reading her mind. He didn't know her very well, but suddenly she felt he was making a very astute statement aimed directly at her.

"Even if it goes against everything Manticore taught us about emotions," he added, leveling Alec with his playful stare.

Just as suddenly, Max thought that Biggs was Alec's Original Cindy. Always speaking the God's Honest and imparting some wisdom unto a genetically-enhanced fool.

"We're just gonna jump in." Biggs smiled wide again.

Max was dumbstruck. A smile found its way to her lips and she watched as Alec shook Biggs' hand again. Hadn't Biggs just said she was an Ordinary?

"I thought you said she knew about you. Aren't you afraid of putting her in danger?" Max asked, a question very reminiscent of Zack's speech from a time long-passed.

Biggs turned to her. "She's Manticore too," he divulged.

"What? Who?" Alec couldn't hide his surprise. "Anyone I know?"

Biggs shook his head. "She's from the Manistee facility."

Max's mind reeled with confusion. Of course Manticore wasn't restricted to Wyoming. It would have been a tactical oversight to have all your soldier-eggs in one basket. Had they been discovered, the whole project would go down and they wouldn't have the genetic materials to start over, or the backup of multiple other facilities' worth of soldiers. She wondered how many facilities existed.

Alec watched Max's face, somehow understanding the blank, far-off look she expressed, and knew they were going to have a talk about it all later. How could she have been aware of other facilities? He, himself, only found out about a few of them at thirteen, when he started his group missions.

Alec's brows arched in concern for the guilt he knew she'd feel for not burning down all of Manticore, the anger she'd feel for being so naïve, and the helplessness she'd feel for not being able to help them.

Biggs, observing these two disconnected people before him, smiled, and wondered if he had given them enough of a push, enough to make them think. "Her name's Ivy," he offered. "Designation 444."

Turning back to his friend, Alec said, "That's awesome news, Biggsy," but Biggs could tell the thought of the two X-Series transgenics successfully facing the world together really hit close to home.

"Congratulations," Max added, smiling. She tried to hide her hesitation – not at Biggs' happiness, but at her own willingness to accept that transgenics could have love lives. Successful ones, even.

"Thanks," Biggs said, taking a deep breath. "So what's next for you two? Head back to Seattle and fight the good fight?"

"We got friends there," Max said.

"Besides," added Alec, "there are a lot of us there who need help, and a lot of us who can provide that."

Biggs nodded in agreement, but before the conversation could get any more serious, Alec spoke again. "Ah, Biggsy! Don't be a stranger! Hell, maybe I'll find you in California one day."

The two men briefly hugged, patting one another on the back.

Max checked the bar behind them. "You want to come have a drink?"

"Nah, I gotta get these rug rats to sleep."

Max stiffened. She sucked at goodbyes. "It was nice meeting you, Biggs." She extended her hand.

Biggs stepped forward and pulled her into a hung. "You, too, Max."

Backing away from them, he added, "Take care of each other. I'll see ya soon." Biggs turned toward the bonfire.

"Well," Alec mumbled, punctuating the vague goodbye. "I need a drink."

Max felt rooted to the sand as she watched Alec's slumped shoulders heading into the bar. Maybe he expected her to follow, or that she'd eventually come collect him and deposit him on the filthy couch or sticky carpet of a dingy motel room, but she was transfixed by his shrinking figure.

He seemed overcome by everything. What had started as a promising mission turned into such a sad, dark failure. It wasn't easy to see him like that – so dejected. And it brought back memories of Ben.

She felt the tiny grains of sand gradually shift to rocky asphalt and then eventually pavement as her legs carried her through the entrance of the bar. She bore some responsibility for her role in this mess, and she needed to go apologize; she needed to ask for forgiveness.

The dance music played lazily over the speakers as Max maneuvered around groups and tables until she found her mark drowning himself at the bar. There were two women flanking him, but either they were oblivious to his body language screaming 'leave me alone,' or they were put off by his wedding ring, because neither could harness a fraction of his attention. The brunette on the left of him excused herself, and the blond on the right merely walked away without a word.

Max took the blonde's seat, dropped her shoes on the ground, and before the bartender could ask, said, "I'll have what he's having."

"Whiskey double?" asked the bartender.

Max nodded and peered at Alec as the tender stepped away to pour the drink. She bit her lip to refrain from saying the exact thing that was on her mind, at least not until he acknowledged her presence. If he wasn't holding a tumbler, she'd have thought he was strung like a fraying tightrope.

"What?" he asked gently.

"'What' what?"

"Why are you staring at me?" He finally looked over to her, expecting her pitiful stare. Instead, he saw the tiny glimmer of concern flash in her eyes before it was replaced by her soldier's mask.

"I'm just not used to seeing you like this," she said.

The bartender dropped off her drink, and feeling the tension between them, spun to return to his other customers.

"What? Alone at the bar?" he mocked. "I am capable of wanting more than just a warm body, you know."

Max was quiet. She wasn't ready for things to go back to the way they had been. She said demurely, "I was going to say 'raw.'" Max punctuated her statement with a gulp of the whiskey.

The flurry of movement drew Alec's sight to her. She didn't even make a face at the taste of the alcohol. She visibly and purposefully relaxed some of the tension in her shoulders.

"Don't you ever feel… exhausted… from keeping things in all the time?"

_Well, this is interesting, _he thought. He shifted toward her on the stool. "Keeping what in?"

Max picked at the tumbler's edges and stared into its wetness. "Everything, I don't know. The things other people don't know about you."

He reflected on her question. The things other people didn't know about him could probably fill a book, he thought. Things like: he had a best friend in Manticore that he never talked about. He had nightmares almost every night. There were things he was proud of – having friends, getting close to Max, having her look at him with anything more than a passing glance or scowl. But there were some things of which he was deeply ashamed and by which he was deeply embarrassed: his previous moral depravity, his militaristic excellence, Rachel, and now Trip.

He knew what being a soldier meant, and he knew he wasn't the only soldier at this bar. Sipping some whiskey and letting it coat his tongue, he turned back to her. "Sometimes," he answered honestly.

Max broke her staring contest with the liquid and met his eyes.

After another short bout of silence, Alec gave a small nod. "Ask it already."

"What?"

"That question threatening to jump off your tongue."

She wondered how he knew. She always wondered how he knew without her express say-so. Why, if she could fool everyone else into believing she was fine, couldn't she fool Alec? It couldn't be a Manticore thing – no one there could read her as well as Alec could, not even Zack or Ben. And Logan had been way too self-involved and thick-headed to realize she had emotions, complex ones which extended far beyond pasta or superhero, guilt or fun; it was a fact she hadn't realized until the Crawfords put it all into perspective.

The only parallel she could draw was to Original Cindy, but even then, Max had only divulged what she was thinking or feeling half of the time.

So why was Alec so different?

Max took another sip and fidgeted with her glass. "How come you never mentioned I was on 'shoot-to-kill'?"

Alec was almost relieved that this was her question. He looked away, a hurt expression crossing his features. "I didn't want you to believe I ever thought of you that way. I mean, Max, you're a lot of things, you're, you're stubborn and strong and sometimes mean, and you're… accepting and tolerant and smart-"

"We were all made to be smart," she interrupted.

"Not just book-smart, Max. You have an intuition unlike anyone else I know. But deserving of death? No. I never wanted you to believe that's how I thought of you. Because I don't think you realize what you've done for… everyone."

"What? Put giant targets on their bodies? Those can't be lasered off."

"No, I'm serious. You've given every single Manticore soldier a gift. News of what you did proved they could do something about their lives, too. You gave them hope. You gave me hope."

Max sat up straighter, and with some determination in her eyes, and maybe trying to prove him wrong, said, "I'm sorry I didn't make Trip stay put."

"Don't blame yourself. Blame me. I was his CO. Looking out for him was my job."

The gruffness of his voice betrayed his anger, and Max found her gaze shift to his chest. He was breathing hard, maybe near tears – she wasn't sure.

"You trusted me with his life and I was supposed to help you save him. I should have protected him." She couldn't speak beyond those words. She couldn't tell him it wasn't his fault. Her vocal chords felt paralyzed.

Alec lifted his glass and took another gulp.

For a minute or two, they sat in silence, shoulder to shoulder, facing the bar, like repentant angels with broken halos.

Max thought about all they'd been through over the past couple of days. She'd never felt so alive, nor so grief-stricken. Even Manticore's Best weren't good enough to save Trip.

Pulling herself to her feet, Max stepped back from the stool. Alec craned his neck. "Going to the motel?"

Her hair fell forward as she shook her head. She gripped his shoulder lightly and dragged her fingers down his arm, pulling at it by the elbow. She knew if he had to speak, her resolve would disintegrate.

"What?"

Max backed away, urging him to follow, which he reluctantly did, abandoning his glass at the counter.

Just a few steps away from the bar, Max pulled his hand to rest at the small of her back, an action which brought him closer and which let him know his hand was intended to remain. She followed the path of her left hand as it traveled up his right arm, mirroring her right hand to the left's movement. She let her instinct take over, closing her eyes against the comfort she chanced to offer as her hands locked behind his neck.

Hoping this action meant something, but confused by the very possibility of what it might offer, Alec brought his other arm around her, gently pulling her side to side.

When he allowed her to pull him closer, he heart nearly broke. He was letting her in. He was letting her hold him in the guise of a dance.

And she was permitting him to do the same.

Max rested her head on him, facing his neck. She opened her eyes, feeling safe from being called out on this emotional vulnerability. He would never have accepted it if she had asked. She watched how his Adam's apple moved as he swallowed, listening to his heartbeat through his chest. It was strong and against her ear, made her feel safe. More than safe.

It quickened a bit, and she could see his throat moving as he swallowed a few times in succession. Max swept her fingers up into the hair at the nape of his neck and nuzzled her face closer to him.

Her gesture was beautiful to him. As he tried his hardest not to break down over all they'd been through and what they'd sacrificed, he felt Max's reassuring breath on his skin.

As soldiers, they had no moments like this. Superior officers to which all soldiers answered did not offer condolences or sanction vulnerability. Those things were taught superficially, to be used only as tools on their missions. It made Alec wonder where she had learned this. He both hated and loved her for it.

He closed his eyes and found himself hugging her tighter, trying to sort out the emotions which flooded him.

Maybe it was his first real hug, the first time someone reached out to him and he felt himself reaching back – a gratitude for everything she'd done for him.

He realized that without her, the mission to save Trip would have been drastically different. Maybe Trip would have survived, but maybe they would not have been able to save the other fifteen kids. Maybe Biggs or he or both of them could have gotten themselves caught or killed.

The tighter he held on, the more grateful he felt, and the more he didn't want to let go. Just touching her made him feel raw, like at any moment she might discover all of his secrets, all at once and without his express permission. Except on top of all that, he didn't care if she knew. She'd already seen his worst and hadn't turned away.

Deep in his embrace, Max nuzzled further into his neck and reveled in his ability to trust her to be so close to such a vulnerable part of him.

"I'm sorry I let you down," Max said in a tiny whisper against his neck.

Alec released some of the tension in his arms to pull his head back. The motion caused her to do the same, and for a moment, they stared and swayed. "You didn't," he said with a slight shake of his head.

Again, Max watched the Manticore mask dissolve, until before her, a grieving man who had lost his friend stood, broken and begging forgiveness.

Her heart broke all over again. She wasn't sure why, but something in his expression drew her closer until her eyelids drifted shut and his palms slid up her back and his fingertips swept up to the back of her neck. She leaned toward him once again and grazed her lips against his.

With all of the conflicting emotions boiling just under the surface, Alec felt his skin humming. Every fiber in his being was screaming 'What the hell are you doing?!,' which is exactly what he expected Max to yell at him, but she wasn't yelling. She wasn't even pushing him away.

Parting from the small kiss, Alec watched Max's face with some hesitancy, terrified that she would reject him now – now that he had shown himself completely, but her eyes narrowed in a beautiful confusion, as if pleasantly surprised by something she didn't know she wanted. She felt him hesitate as they swayed back and forth; she saw that rawness coming through again. She was pulled back to him.

Their lips touched a second time, and pushing his lower lip between hers, Alec teased her upper lip with his tongue. A small intake of breath and lack of knee to the groin were his only clues as to how she would react to this new kind of intimacy between them.

Need overwhelmed him when she parted her lips further, and as their tongues seemed to stroke one another's, he felt this kiss was somehow softer than before. Max had snaked her other hand to rest over his heart, deepening and slowing their kiss.

Soon, they lost themselves in solace.


	15. Epilogue: Getting in Touch

_Three minutes,_ thought Max, staring over the lean shadows of Alec's back.

He faced the window of their small motel room, seemingly asleep and surprisingly silent (surprisingly, considering his normally mouthy self).

Max was also silent, but her mind was loud with questions and arguments, and those sentiments muddled her vision more than did the threadbare curtains over the couch on which he 'slept.'

Three minutes. That's how long their intimate kissing and dancing lasted before the song ended and Alec suggested they turn in for the night.

It was like a light switch. One minute, Max was weak in the knees with Alec's unreasonably soft lips and skilled tongue massaging hers, and the next minute, they were silently walking back to the motel room, their scuffling feet on jagged rocks the only noises which dared make themselves known.

He had gone to the car to get their belongings as she slipped into the darkened room and mentally panicked. What did all of this mean? Was it just a comfort kiss? Internally she called out to the Blue Lady for some clarity and advice, because she realized she really didn't want it to be just a comfort kiss.

With her heart beating rapidly, Max marked a path through the empty room to the bathroom.

_One bed. Only one bed,_ she noticed, her mind excited racing over the possibilities. Would they share the bed like they had at the Lux? And if so, would things turn out differently, different than hugging the edge of the mattress to avoid his warmth, keeping turned from him so she wouldn't be tempted to stare at him? Or would he see the one bed and immediately offer to take the first leg of the drive back to Seattle, just to avoid it altogether? Somewhere in her subconscious, she wondered if he was freaking out about this, too.

Behind the bathroom's closed door, Max leaned against it, grateful for the time alone to attempt to assess the situation, even if all she could actively think about was how good he tasted.

Switching the light on, Max took in the small, clean room. Two of the four bulbs atop the vanity were burned out, but the shower curtain looked clean and the toilet paper was folded into a triangle at the hanging end.

She lifted her eyes to see her reflection. They'd been through a lot over the past few days, and it certainly showed on her. Dirty, tired, tear-stained and rumpled.

Max slipped off her shoes and turned on the shower, and as she gradually undressed in preparation for the shower, she heard the motel door open. Part of the main room's light spilled under the bathroom door, and as she heard their bags hit the floor, Max calmed, knowing Alec was there.

It wasn't until a minute later, under the gentle pressure of the shower spray, that she realized she hadn't brought her clothes in with her. _Oh well, _she thought. _I'll just have to be a big girl and wear a towel to go grab them._

Max looked down to the ring again. It was terrifying to admit she was getting used to it, and it was pretty, and she didn't want to give it back just yet. All of it was terrifying.

Once her shower was complete, she toweled off and wrapped the white terry-cloth around her body, preparing to grab her suitcase; however, no extra light seeped under the door. Alec must have turned off the light and gone to sleep.

Opening the door, she peered into the room. Directly in her path rested her case. She smiled, bent to lift the luggage, and swung it into the bathroom. She could see her own silhouette shadowed across the room, falling over Alec's prone form at the couch.

Once that thin door closed her off from him once again, Max took a deep breath. He hadn't taken the bed; he had just done the chivalrous thing and made a bed out of the couch. Part of it was relieving, because now they didn't have to address the kiss or feel awkward talking about going to bed, but the other part made her feel anxious, because she wanted to talk about those things, to get a feel for what he was feeling.

Quickly, she changed into clean underwear and pulled out and put on the short nightgown she thought she was going to wear back when they should have had separate rooms. She sat on the lidded toilet, combed her hair, and surveyed the room, thinking about the past few days.

Alec had really opened up, letting her see who he really was. He'd really come a long way since that first day in her cell. The respect he inspired in Biggs and Trip and Scar, the respect he offered to and inspired in her. She smiled to herself and towel-dried her hair. Plus, he wasn't too shabby in a tux.

Softly, she packed up her dress and heels. There'd be no saving the dress now that it was bloodied and dirtied, but she wasn't ready to part with it just yet. She clicked off the light and opened the door, carried out and set down her luggage, and pulled back the covers of the bed.

On the rightmost pillow sat a small, shiny object. From the very little light that leaked into the room, the object glimmered, and she could see by the shadows around it that it was the face of a black cat with shining chrome eyes.

When she picked it up, it became clear that it was a pendant. She sat down facing the window and looked at it.

Clearly it came from Alec. What she wasn't sure about was when he had the time to procure said pendant. She lifted her gaze to him and found he was leaning up on one elbow, watching her face.

"Do you like it?" he asked in a gravelly, low voice.

Max's mouth went dry, staring at the darkened parts of his eyes under slightly disheveled 'couch head.' She smiled. "I love it."

He gave a lopsided grin. "Good. I have a contact that has the perfect chain. I'll get it tomorrow." Careful not to peep too long, he took in Max's attire appreciatively, then promptly turned to face the window.

Tucking her feet into the cool sheets, Max set the pendant on the nightstand and stared at Alec's back.

_Three minutes._

* * *

_Three minutes, _Alec thought in the shower the next morning. _Three minutes of the scariest and most beautiful minutes of my life._

As he washed his hair, he tried to wash away the negative thoughts creeping into his mind. Was that only a one-time thing with her, or was it more? He hoped it was more, and that was the scariest part of all. _Because why would she ever go for a guy like me. She's got me pigeon-holed as a screw-up, and I proved that this week, if nothing else._

What if she didn't feel the same? What if it had been a pity drink, followed by a pity dance, followed by a pity kiss? _A pity kiss that lasted the better part of three minutes,_ his brain argued.

Momentarily, he wondered what she really thought of the cat. Was she just being polite?

_Max, polite? Man, those are two words previously never used in the same sentence. If she were in here, she would have smacked me for that_, he was another dangerous thought, because it led to the idea that if she were in there, she'd be in the shower-

He cut off that thought. _No reason to get excited, _he warned himself.

When he exited the bathroom fully dressed eight minutes later, he saw that Max had already taken her stuff out to the car as she said she would. Dropping the key at the nightstand, Alec made his way out the door and toward the vehicle.

* * *

"How'd you sleep?" Max asked as Alec climbed into the driver's seat. She had already wired the car and had been warming up the interior.

"Okay," he said. He had barely slept at all. Forcing himself to keep his back to her all night was torturous, considering all his anxiety-filled thoughts. It didn't help that he felt like she was staring holes into his back all night. "You?"

"Shark DNA," she supplied, implying she had slept a little. It was also a lie; she hadn't slept at all – just stared at Alec's back for an hour or two before going through all of the events to attempt to play the scenarios out with different choices. And when that became boring, her thoughts turned to Alec's ridiculously delicious lips and she found herself heating up.

"You ready to head back?"

"I guess so," she offered.

When he raised his hands to the wheel, she noticed he no longer wore the wedding band. As secretively as possible, she covered one hand with the other and removed hers, stowing it in her jeans pocket. Her face fell for a moment, feeling foolish for having kept it on when he clearly had no intention of keeping the one she'd picked out for him.

Though he kept his face schooled, he saw her movements and sorrowed expression. _Idiot_, he chided himself. He was damn near certain he saw her take her ring off this morning when he 'woke up.' He didn't want to hold on to the ruse if she wasn't going to do the same, so he had removed his before his shower, and pocketed it before leaving the bathroom.

Max turned her body toward the passenger's side window and stared out at the trees as Alec drove them out of Santa Cruz.

* * *

Max was surprised when she woke up at a gas station. She didn't remember falling asleep, and that meant two things: one, she didn't know where they were, and two, she didn't know how long she'd slept.

She sat up fully in her seat and stared out the driver's side passenger's window at Alec, who appeared to not yet know she had awakened. He seemed deep in thought, once again. He was making a habit of that, she thought, or else she had never noticed before. With his jaw clenched and his eyebrows furrowed, she could sense something serious was on his mind, but she couldn't tell what. Maybe he was debating with himself about something.

Finally, he turned to pull the nozzle from the vehicle and saw Max's wide eyes, watching him. Instinctively, he smiled at her. One small smile to admit she had caught him.

Paralyzed from feeling his gaze wash over her face, Max could only stare back at him, silently retreating to her highway imagery. Cold, dark leather interior, shiny black and chrome, moonlight dancing off surfaces, completely alone.

Alec recognized that look. It was uncanny in its resemblance to the far-off look she sported when he'd sweet-talked Max, causing Original Cindy to leave the table at Crash. _But she isn't thinking about that. How could she be?_

He opened the driver's side door and Max looked away, a sexy blush shifting onto her face. "I'll drive," she said, eager to get out of the car and let the air cool her off.

Sliding into the driver's seat, Max looked over to Alec, who seemed to have already adjusted the seat back to accommodate his longer legs. She moved her own seat forward and buckled in.

Alec leaned his seat back and stared into the roof's abyss.

"Something on your mind?"

Glancing to her concerned eyes, Alec tried to shake his behavior. He was quiet for a moment. "I was just thinking…" he trailed, but stopped himself with a (if she wasn't mistaken) self-depreciating smile. "No, nevermind."

She let it go. For the first time in a long time, she didn't push him. Hadn't he had enough? Besides that, she didn't want to fracture their seemingly fragile possibly-on-the-verge-of-becoming-something-more-than-friendship. "Okay," she said, feeling the need to punctuate the conversation.

And she really was okay with it all. And when he fell asleep, she was okay with that too. Gave her more time to think.

* * *

_Thinking is overrated,_ Max decided. _Or sleeping is. One of them is. _

She scowled, thinking how lonely six hours is when you're driving and no one else is awake, because _he's still sleeping._

When he woke up, it was with a start. Minutes prior, he had a couple of whimpers, but they passed quickly and Max assumed whatever nightmare he was probably having was over. All thoughts of how selfishly he'd been sleeping faded in his wake.

And just as before, he was checking her limbs again.

"I'm okay," she said this time. After a beat, she asked, "Are you?"

He adjusted his position and cleared his throat. "Yeah, just a dream." He wondered how she knew. He wondered if he was being too obvious with his behavior and willed himself to try to stop.

Alec hated Manticore once again. They had abused their soldiers' loyalty and taken everything from them just shy of their lives – and barely not their lives because of Max's interference. They had taken their choices away and brainwashed them into believing there was no hope for survival outside of their system. Their royally fucked up system.

He was tired of losing, of losing the people he cared about. He was tired of losing hope that he'd, one day, have a quasi-normal life. He was tired of running away.

Max watched his emotions play just behind the veil of his irises and pupils. She didn't want him to retreat. It seemed he was dangerously close to shutting himself off again.

"Hey," she started, smoothly.

He looked to her, and for a few seconds, caught her expression. She wouldn't placate him, but she could say with her eyes that things would be okay.

"I know a fence who'll take this SUV off our hands. Cut you in on half?"

* * *

Normal had welcomed Alec back with open arms, and Max with a slight scolding for not letting his Golden Boy get in his full week of vacation. Alec had given her a sheepish grin for an apology and avoided Normal's advances. His cell phone rang, and he excused himself to another part of the room to answer.

Max wandered back to her locker, muscled the door open, and stared in surprise. Two things were in her locker that she hadn't left there: the Jasmine Bubble Bath, and, on one of the two hooks which normally held her raincoat, the silver chain Alec had promised.

She fished into her pocket for the pendant and produced two objects – her pendant and the ring. She slipped both onto the chain, slipped the chain over her head, and pulled her hair through.

"Hey Max," Alec called, heading toward her.

With her back to him, she quickly slipped the chain under her shirt so he wouldn't see the ring, and then faced him. "Yeah," she said impatiently.

He caught up to her and eyed her warily. He had a sneaking suspicion she was hiding something from him. Light glimmered off the chain at her neck, and he could see she was panicking.

"Thanks for the chain. And the bubbles."

He leaned on the locker next to hers. "Man of my word," he said simply, appreciating the look on her face as it changed from panicked to grateful. "Hey, can I talk to you about something?"

"Of course." Max pulled her gloves from her locker and shut the locker door.

Alec was tongue-tied. He wanted to talk about their kiss, and his nightmares, and the news he'd just received, but she had him in a trance.

"What? Everything okay?" she asked, wriggling the glove over her hand.

If he couldn't tell her how he felt, he could at least show her. He couldn't spend the rest of his life letting the fear of losing people dictate who he was. Nervously, he stood up straight and hesitated only a second before advancing toward her.

He scooped a hand through her hair at the back of her head and tilted his head down to meet hers in a kiss. He moved his mouth deftly over hers, waiting for her to push him away. Instead, she made a tiny noise akin to pleasure and crept her one gloved hand up to his neck. She deepened their kiss.

Despite the cat calls of the other messengers, the two transgenics carried on undeterred.

Original Cindy sauntered in amidst the hoots and hollers, looking for the couple responsible for her coworkers' cacophonous uproar, and settled her gaze on her girl, wrapped up in Alec's tight embrace. She smiled to herself.

"Hey! You're not being paid to 'get your mack on' or whatever you miscreants say, on company time!" Normal reprimanded.

"Shut up, fool," Cindy said, and added quietly, "Been a long time coming."

"One more remark like that outta you…" Normal threatened. "Bip, bip, bip!" he shouted.

Max and Alec came apart, breathless, flushed, and with kiss-swollen lips. He pressed his lips to hers one last time before speaking. "Just got word that another chapter of our dear alma mater's going down. Biggs and Ivy've got a plan. It's in Texas. You game?"

Max smiled excitedly.

"We'd be undercover again," he started. "You still got that ring?"

Thumbing it out from under her shirt, Max bit her lip guiltily.

Alec confirmed his suspicion she had been hiding something. Proudly, he held up his left hand, on which he had replaced the ring she had given him.

"Can I take that as a yes?"

Max smiled coyly. "Do they have bathtubs the size of Logan's office?" She arched a single brow at Alec's agape mouth, proud of the response her question elicited.

Alec grabbed her hand and pulled her past a smiling Original Cindy and toward the exit. "Everything's big in Texas!"


End file.
